Japan Cabinet's Casualty Injures Aso's Election Hopes

By Makiko Kitamura

Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Taro Aso's transport minister quit after four days on the job, threatening to undermine the Japanese leader's ability to gain support ahead of elections that may come as early as next month.

Nariaki Nakayama stepped down today after a series of remarks widely viewed as political gaffes, the latest in a long line of Liberal Democratic Party cabinet ministers who aroused opposition and public ire that cost them their posts.

The resignation is a blow to Aso, who took office last week seeking to raise his party's public approval record before going to the voters against an opposition that enjoys an edge in some opinion polls. The Democratic Party of Japan, led by Ichiro Ozawa, had support from 31 percent of voters in an Asahi newspaper poll published on Sept. 2, compared with 27 percent for the LDP.

``This gives Ozawa an opportunity to use this to show that Aso is incompetent,'' said Robert Dujarric, director of the Institute of Contemporary Japanese Studies at Temple University's Japan Campus. ``It gives him ammunition to attack the LDP.''

Aso will likely name Kazuyoshi Kaneko, 65, who led administrative reform efforts in the administration of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, to replace Nakayama, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told reporters today.

Aso last week replaced Yasuo Fukuda, the second premier in a year to quit the post citing an inability to overcome political gridlock. Aso and his Cabinet received an initial approval rating of 49.5 percent in a Yomiuri newspaper poll published Sept. 26, less than the 57.5 percent Fukuda had after taking office in September last year.

Union `Cancer'

Nakayama, a former education minister, called the nation's biggest teachers' union ``a cancer on Japanese education'' and said it should be disbanded, Kyodo News reported.

He also called opponents of expanding Tokyo's Narita airport ``more or less squeaky wheels,'' Kyodo reported. ``I believe they are (the product) of bad postwar education,'' the report said.

The remarks may further erode public favor for an LDP facing a tough fight to extend its more than half-century-long rule. LDP officials have predicted Aso will call a lower-house election as early as next month to capitalize on any honeymoon period his administration enjoys.

``If we said there was no damage from this, it would be a lie,'' said Hiroyuki Hosoda, secretary-general of the LDP, on NHK television today.

Scandals and Gaffes

Including Nakayama, six ministers have resigned in the past two years over scandals and gaffes.

Last year, former Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma quit the Cabinet of then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after a public outcry over comments suggesting the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justified because they helped end World War II.

As education minister, Nakayama made repeated gaffes, such as supporting a reduction in references to so-called comfort women in textbooks, Communist Party member Keiji Kokuta said on Sept. 26.

The European Parliament and U.S. House of Representatives have called on Japan to apologize for forcing women to serve as sex slaves during World War II.

``Prime Minister Aso's responsibility in making the appointment is exceedingly large,'' DPJ Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama said at a press conference on Sept. 26, calling Nakayama ``a terrible minister.''

Aso has made some controversial remarks himself, including a suggestion last December that Japan should debate whether to develop nuclear weapons. In 2006, he provoked a protest from South Korea by saying he wanted the emperor to visit Yasukuni, a shrine that counts war criminals among the honored war dead.

Nakayama confirmed his resignation at a press conference in Tokyo today, broadcast by NHK television.

To contact the reporter on this story: Makiko Kitamura in Tokyo at mkitamura1@bloomberg.net.