In September of 2007, Japan got itself a new Prime Minister, Yasuo Fukuda. The previous one, Shinzo Abe, had resigned after serving for only one year. Usual length of term for Prime Minister is four years, just like America.
Abe resigned mostly due to falling approval ratings which were below 30% for several months. But arguably, the biggest problem were the guys running the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
The beginning of the end was when Shinzo Abe's Agricultural Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka, committed suicide due to questions about various scandalous practices. Prior to his death, he faced formal inquiries over high utility expenses in a rent-free office - he had claimed more than 28 million yen ($236,600). These monies included political donations, and excessive utility expenses (about $42,000) even though Matsuoka had a small office. He said it was due to the purchase of purified water, because people rarely drink tap water, he said.
On May 28, 2007, hours before facing questioning in the Diet (parliament), he committed suicide by hanging in his Tokyo apartment and died at Keio University hospital in Tokyo. Matsuoka's vice minister said that Matsuoka had used the money on geisha, Japanese press reported, but he retracted his comments the next day, saying it was only a joke (yeah right).
But the next guy, Norihiko Akagi, was just as scummy. Not even two months after being inaugurated, Akagi found himself indicted in a political funding scandal not entirely different from the one his predecessor, had been embroiled in. He was alleged to have registered multi-million yen expenditures on an office which did not exist! Was this guy a politician or a mobster!? Akagi was asked to make receipts official, (whatever that means) but refused. On July 17, he appeared at a press conference with two adhesive bandages on his face, puzzling reporters but still refusing to make receipts official. I saw it. It looked like he went to fight club, but forgot to fight. He didn't actually fight anyone, nor did he get hurt, he just put them on and nobody knows why. Very strange.
Akagi resigned as Minister on August 1st after the upper house elections (which are like American Congressional elections). Minister of the Environment, Masatoshi Wakabayashi, became temporary Minister of Agriculture until they were able to find a replacement.
Think it was over? No no no... So Abe wanted to reshuffle his cabinet after the Upper House elections, and the next gangste- I mean politician- he chose was Takehiko Endo. If you would have bet he was dirty, you would have won that bet. Seven days after Endo took up the the position of Agriculture Minister, he resigned due to yet another scandal that was uncovered. Details were unavailable.
So now the new guy for Agriculture Minister was Masatoshi Wakabayashi; the temp who took over after Akagi. He was clean...until 2010.
In March 2010, Wakabayashi resigned from the Diet after being accused of pressing the voting button for fellow lawmaker Mikio Aoki, whose Diet seat was next to him. Aoki was absent from a house plenary vote that day.
So let's recap. We got three stooges: Matsuoka, Akagi, and Endo.
1. Matsuoka commits suicide to escape questions of corruption, and is replaced by Akagi.
2. Akagi takes over as Ag. Minister, but resigns due to corruption and is replaced by Endo.
3. Endo takes over as Ag. Minister, but resigns due to corruption and is replaced by Wakabayashi; the temp who took over between Akagi and Endo.
Boy, the Abe Gang had quite a few colorful characters, huh? So after all this crap, and for approval ratings below 30% for several months, "Honest Abe" resigned after exactly one year as Japan's prime minister. Abe said his unpopularity was hindering the passage of an anti-terrorism law, involving among other things, Japan's continued military presence in Afghanistan. Party officials also said the Prime Minister was suffering from poor health. On September 26, Abe officially ended his term as Yasuo Fukuda became the 91st (!) Prime Minister of Japan. The office of Prime Minister has existed since 1885, and in its current form since 1947 (America has had 44 since 1789).
At least he had the good sense to take a hint and know when to leave when he knew he was doing a bad job .
You might be thinking, but Brandon, that's just the government. That doesn't mean everything is corrupt. Stay tuned for the next post, friends.
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