ID :
46182
Wed, 02/18/2009 - 12:00
Auther :

FOCUS: Haze remains as Nakagawa takes bitter medicine+



TOKYO, Feb. 17 Kyodo - As soon as Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa started to talk at his weekend
press conference in Rome, it was evident to everyone in the hotel banquet room
that something was amiss and suspicions quickly grew that he had been drinking.

But even though Nakagawa resigned as finance minister on Tuesday evening to
take responsibly for ''causing trouble to people concerned,'' it is still not
clear whether he had arrived at the press briefing under the influence.
Only his appearance and comments from people around him suggested that this
might have been so.
''Uh...well...we've held a G-7 meeting since last night,'' Nakagawa said in
Japanese on Saturday after attending the two-day Group of Seven financial
chiefs' meeting in the Italian capital. Immediately after the start of the news
conference, a senior ministry official gave a glass of water to the minister,
who was unable to articulate properly.
With his eyes glazed, Nakagawa made a few mistakes while explaining such
matters as Japan's latest financial aid to developing economies.
He also skipped some questions from reporters and failed to answer when asked
what he had told his G-7 colleagues regarding protectionism in global trade, a
topic on which Nakagawa earlier suggested he had a lot to say.
''I was really nervous watching him,'' a Japanese delegate said after the press
conference.
Word of Nakagawa's behavior spread quickly after the foreign media and YouTube
splashed images of him appearing to doze off at the briefing.
''Granted, the jet lag after a 15-hour flight isn't easy to overcome,'' ABC
News reported Saturday.
''But when your nation's economy is predicted to contract by 2.5 percent this
year, per the IMF (International Monetary Fund), and its biggest automakers
like Toyota and Nissan are slashing jobs by the tens of thousands, that should
be enough to keep you awake,'' it said.
Comments posted on ABC's website mocked Nakagawa for his sloppy appearance as
he stumbled over words, answered questions that were not addressed to him, and
even got Japan's interest rates wrong.
''Let's not fool ourselves. Most of us who see the advertisements for Japanese
tabloid magazines...have known for a while that Nakagawa has a serious issue
with the bottle,'' one comment said.
Although Prime Minister Taro Aso has accepted Nakagawa's resignation, the
government has shown no sign of clarifying whether he was under the influence
of alcohol.
In a Diet session Monday, Nakagawa said simply that what many lawmakers and TV
commentators have called an act ''that hurt Japan's credibility'' was a result
of large doses of cold medicine that he took.
During the G-7 talks Saturday, wine was served with lunch but Nakagawa told the
parliamentary session he had just sipped some wine. ''I did not gulp it,'' he
said.
Nonetheless, the suspicion that he had drunk alcohol before meeting the press
in the afternoon remains, with one ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker
saying of his liking for a tipple, ''Everyone knows his episodes.''
Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, meanwhile, told reporters that Nakagawa is
a ''person who loves alcohol,'' adding ''I have told him to take care for some
time.''
After the Saturday press conference in Rome, a finance ministry official said,
''Today was the worst I have ever seen him.''
But some market analysts were unmoved by the fuss.
''His resignation would cause no market reaction,'' said a trader at a Japanese
securities house, who asked not to be named. ''With the market having few
expectations of this unpopular Japanese administration, it would not let market
participants down.''
A foreign bank official said that even if Nakagawa steps down, Japan's
''bureaucratic organization will remain intact, and it is unlikely the finance
ministry's main policies would change.''
The G-7 also includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United
States.
In a more recent comment posted on ABC's website, another person wrote, ''It's
just too embarrassing to be Japanese after this G-7.''
==Kyodo
2009-02-17 23:45:11


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