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Japan pension scandal worsens
10/05/2004 20:39 - (SA)
Tokyo - Japan's top opposition leader announced on Monday he would resign after admitting he missed payments into the troubled national pension system, the second high-profile politician to step down in the scandal, media reports said.
Naoto Kan, the head of the Democratic Party, had resisted quitting but pressure built over the weekend for him to atone for failing to make payments while he was health and welfare minister in the 1990s.
The resignation was widely expected, and was reported by national broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News service. Officials at the Democratic Party headquarters did not immediately answer their phones to confirm the announcement.
Kan is one in an expanding group of Japanese politicians who have confessed to missing pension premium payments. The scandal comes as the government is trying to reform the system to account for the growing number of retirees as society ages.
On Friday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda resigned after admitting that he had unwittingly missed payments. While that was a blow to the ruling coalition, his departure shifted media attention to the opposition.
- AP
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