Tokyo, Oct. 14 (Jiji Press)–Japanese agriculture minister Kazuo Yana, mired in a series of scandals such as suspected election law violations, resigned in an effective dismissal Wednesday, dealing a serious blow to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration. Yana submitted his resignation to Takaichi in a meeting at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo on the day. The prime minister accepted the offer. This marked the first scandal-related departure of a cabinet member since the Takaichi administration was launched in October last year. The move, which came less than a month after she reshuffled her cabinet Sept. 17, is certain to hit her hard. Opposition parties are expected to grill Takaichi over her responsibility for appointing Yana to the ministerial post. The prime minister told reporters that she accepted Yana’s resignation because the government “needs to work on important issues,” mentioning legislation on a proposed consumption tax rate cut for food. She said she takes seriously her responsibility for appointing him. Takaichi plans to pick Yana’s replacement as early as Thursday. Yana himself told reporters after his meeting with Takaichi that he decided to step down from his ministerial post because he thought he “should not hinder parliamentary deliberations any further” and “should avoid not being able to focus on agricultural and fishery policy.” Earlier Wednesday, the parliamentary affairs chiefs of 10 opposition parties and groups in the Senate, the upper chamber, including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Democratic Party for the People, had agreed to submit a censure motion against Yana if he did not resign. The motion had a possibility of being passed as the ruling camp, led by Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party, lacks a majority in the Upper House. It was learned that Yana’s camp provided supporters with free shuttle bus transportation during the campaign period for the House of Representatives election in February, in a possible violation of the public offices election law. He was also slammed for suggesting that road-related budgets had been cut in municipalities whose mayors did not support him in the Feb. 8 Lower House poll. The Bunshun Online news website reported Wednesday that Yana had paid campaign workers during the October 2024 Lower House election, possibly in violation of the election law. Opposition parties scrambled to condemn Yana. “The resignation came too late,” Yuichi Goto, parliamentary affairs chief of the Democratic Reform Party, told reporters. “The prime minister’s judgment should be questioned.” Yana, a Lower House member, should step down also as a lawmaker, Goto said. DPFP leader Yuichiro Tamaki said that “the Takaichi cabinet as a whole bears responsibility to give explanations over the suspicions and allegations,” and demanded that plenary meetings and budget committee meetings of both parliamentary chambers be held as a condition for entering deliberations on the consumption tax cut bill. “It’s been a series of incidents that warrant more than a resignation,” Komeito chief Mitsunari Okamoto said. CDP parliamentary affairs chief Yoshitaka Saito said Yana had failed to adequately explain himself, demanding multiple intensive deliberations at the Senate Budget Committee. Japanese Communist Party head Tomoko Tamura took issue with Takaichi initially standing by the embattled minister, saying it was “more an issue of the prime minister than of Yana.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
