May 14, 2009

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Konoike Yoshitada tendered his resignation on May 13, apparently for his inappropriate conduct associated with his private trip with a woman.

At a news conference on May 13, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kawamura Takeo said that Konoike was stepping down “for health reasons” and that Prime Minister Aso Taro accepted the resignation.

However, the latest issue of a weekly magazine reported that he used the free railway pass for parliamentarians for a private trip with a woman. His affair with the woman had been reported in January, but the prime minister did nothing but gave a word of caution through the Chief Cabinet Secretary.

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on May 13 said to reporters, “The too obvious false reason shows that he lacks any sense of remorse or self-reflection, which is unacceptable.”

Shii also said that the deputy chief cabinet secretary’s misdeed at a time when the government should immediately respond to the new type of influenza constitutes a serious political issue.

The JCP chair said, “I see this as a symptom of the Aso Cabinet being terminally ill.”