Japan's scandal-tainted farm minister commits suicide (1st Lead)

Asia-Pacific News

May 28, 2007, 5:51 GMT

Tokyo - Scandal-plagued Japanese Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka, 62, died Monday at a Tokyo hospital after he hanged himself, police said. Matsuoka was pronounced dead around 2 pm (0500 GMT), a couple of hours after he was brought to hospital unconscious. Matsuoka's secretary and a security official found the minister hanging from a rope about noon in his residence in the housing building for members of the Diet, Japan's parliament. He had been scheduled to attend a House of Councillors committee meeting in the afternoon, local media said. The minister has been under fire for scandals involving illegal political donations and had demanded to resign. Matsuoka has avoided providing explanations for expenditures related to his office management and has been asked about political donations from contractors allegedly involved in bid rigging for public construction projects. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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mzsquaredMay 28th, 2007 - 06:47:08

One must love this Samurai saturated culture !. An ultimate admittance of guilt
and dishonor. So different to our world where political sleaziness would try to
show us only a poker face and take 'a fifth'.

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vanMay 28th, 2007 - 07:04:05

maybe some government leaders in america could learn a lesson from this minister.

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JisatsuMay 28th, 2007 - 07:16:55

He was no samurai, he did not commit seppuku.

Although he probably commited suicide for his lost honour,
it might be for other reasons as well.

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KenMay 28th, 2007 - 07:24:29

I wish our politicians in the USA had this kind of Honor! There would definitely be a lot less of them!

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AustinMay 28th, 2007 - 16:10:12

'maybe some government leaders in america could learn a lesson from this minister.'

Clinton would never do that.