KEY POINTS:
Has the man in charge of steering the world's second-largest economy through its worst crisis since the 1970s been drunk at the wheel?
That is the million-yen question in Japan. The soul-searching follows an eye-popping performance by the nation's famously heavy-drinking Finance Minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, at a weekend G7 meeting in Rome.
He has denied he was drunk but all the same said he would quit after Parliament approves a supplementary budget, probably in late April.
During a press conference, Nakagawa slurred, yawned, lost his train of thought and appeared to nod off during a reporter's question. At one point, he called the G7 "the G20" and could not recall Japan's present rate of interest.
Arriving home on Monday to find his feet in the fire on the day that Japan announced its worst economic figures since the mid-1970s oil crisis, a contrite Nakagawa, 55, blamed a heavy cold.
"I took a larger-than-usual portion of cold medicine," he said. "I am sorry for my behaviour." A glass of wine on the 13-hour flight to Rome had aggravated his condition, he claimed.
The announcement on Tuesday that he would resign was a huge embarrassment for Prime Minister Taro Aso, who the day before had asked Nakagawa to stay on. Economy Minister Kaoru Yosano will assume Nakagawa's duties.
Any hopes he had of remaining in office were weakened by alarming economic figures showing that the economy dived 3.3 per cent in the last quarter, its worst performance in 30 years and a steeper decline than in the United States or Europe.
With exports of Japan's mainstay cars, machine tools and electronics plummeting, several of the country's manufacturing giants, including Toyota, Nissan and Sony, have announced large production cuts and layoffs.
The dismal economy is overshadowed by political paralysis and the growing unpopularity of the battered Administration of Aso. Polls put his personal support at lower than 10 per cent.
A survey by the liberal Mainichi newspaper showed Aso's rival, Ichiro Ozawa, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), almost 10 points ahead, a grim harbinger for the ruling Liberal Democrats, who have been in power for most of the post-war period. The Government must call an election by September.
Aso has been accused of trying to bribe the electorate with a handout of about 12,000 yen ($256) to every citizen. The Prime Minister is reportedly considering yet another Government stimulus package worth 20 trillion yen.
Meanwhile, Opposition politicians called Nakagawa's performance on the world stage "an embarrassment". Yukio Hatoyama, secretary-general of the DPJ, accused the Finance Minister of "damaging the national interest", and led the call for his removal, saying: "He is supposed to be dismissed right away."
Nakagawa, who in his role has been in charge of public finances, has repeatedly dodged allegations that he has been squiffy while engaged in Government business.
After his election win in 2000, millions of TV viewers watched as he drunkenly tried to paint in the eye of a traditional daruma doll, a sign of good luck. Nakagawa's political friends expressed sympathy. "He really loves to drink," said the former Prime Minister, Yoshio Mori.
Staring grimly at TV pictures of the apparently inebriated minister, Mori said: "I advised him once to be careful about drinking."
- INDEPENDENT
