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Minister's suicide a blow to Abe
29/05/2007 09:10 - (SA)
Tokyo - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe felt the heat on Tuesday after the suicide of a scandal-tainted minister, with media saying he bore partial responsibility amid a sharp drop in his approval rating.
Farm Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka, a longtime Abe ally who was under fire over political donations and rigged contracts, hanged himself on Monday, sending shockwaves through the political establishment.
A grim-faced Abe and other ministers offered a one-minute prayer for Matsuoka at the beginning of a regular cabinet meeting with a white flower placed on Matsuoka's empty chair.
"It was extremely regrettable that his life was cut short with things only half done," Abe, wearing a black tie, told his ministers, asking them to stick together and keep working for the national good.
Lawmakers, ministers and business leaders paid their respects privately at a Tokyo funeral hall. His body was later driven past the parliament building on its way to the airport and his home in the southern province of Kumamoto.
Matsuoka, a career bureaucrat turned politician, had helped Abe rise through the ranks but suffered a poor public image due to his close ties with powerful lobbies.
He hanged himself in his residence hours before he was to be grilled in parliament over allegations of bid-rigging for public works.
In another suicide linked to the scandal, Shinichi Yamazaki, the former head of a public company handling forest work, apparently threw himself off his condominium on Tuesday.
Yamazaki had headed a government-affiliated company in charge of contracts for forest work. Investigators were probing whether bids were rigged to give projects to donors to Matsuoka.
Blow to Abe
Analysts said Matsuoka's suicide would be a severe blow to Abe, who partly due to the scandal has suffered a sharp decline in public support ahead of key elections for the upper house of parliament on July 22.
"Prime Minister Abe cannot help but take responsibility for the case," said Tetsuro Kato, professor of politics at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo.
"His support rate is now sliding, and the suicide may accelerate the decline," Kato said. "Abe is now at a crucial stage ahead of the upper house election."
A defeat in the conservative premier's first national election could lead to calls for Abe's resignation, although his party would remain in power due to a majority in the lower house.
In the latest opinion poll released on Tuesday, support for Abe's cabinet dropped to a new low of 36%, down eight points from the previous survey a week ago.
- AFP
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