Endo resigns as agriculture minister

   Endo Takehiko on September 3 resigned as agriculture minister over money scandals involving his agricultural mutual aid association after submitting his resignation to Prime Minister Abe Shinzo.

   Endo, the third head of the Agriculture Ministry in three months, is the fifth Abe cabinet minister to quit the post. The Abe Cabinet now faces a serious crisis only a week after its reshuffle.

   Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi before reporters on the same day pointed out that Endo had been aware of the fact that the agricultural mutual aid association which he was heading had fraudulently received government subsidies by inflating the number of its members. “He should not have taken office. He was unqualified to be a minister in the first place,” said Ichida.

   Pointing out that five ministers in the Abe cabinet resigned in less than a year, Ichida said that the Abe Cabinet is on the verge of collapse. “Prime Minister Abe has not made clear his own responsibility in appointing them to ministerial posts. We will demand he take responsibility for these appointments in the Diet session starting on September 10,” Ichida said.                           - Akahata, September 4, 2007