TRANSPORTATION MINISTER RESIGNS AFTER FIVE DAYS

UNCLAS TOKYO 002731 SIPDIS EEB/TRA/AN FOR DAS JOHN BYERLY DOT FOR KEITH GLATZ USTR FOR MICHAEL BEEMAN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAIR PGOV ELTN ETRD JA SUBJECT: TRANSPORTATION MINISTER RESIGNS AFTER FIVE DAYS REF: TOKYO 2639 ¶1. (U) Summary: Only five days after his appointment, MLIT Minister Nariaki Nakayama formally resigned September 28 after a series of controversial remarks. Prime Minister Aso appointed Kazuyoshi Kaneko, a Lower House member with experience in construction and budget issues, to replace Nakayama. Japanese press and other commentators note the remarks and subsequent resignation come at an awkward time for the new Aso administration. End Summary. ¶2. (U) Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) Minister Nariaki Nakayama formally resigned September 28 after making a series of highly publicized statements highlighting his strongly nationalist and right-wing views. In a press conference after his resignation, Nakayama said, "I was determined to fulfill my mission in a key cabinet post, but I have decided to step down from that post, since my remarks may undermine Diet deliberations amid the growing economic crisis." Nakayama was unapologetic about his criticisms of Japan's teachers' union, however, following his resignation. ¶3. (U) Among the remarks which drew the ire of the opposition and some in the press, Nakayama called Japan's largest teachers' union (affiliated with the Communist Party) "a cancer on Japanese education" September 25 and said the union should disband. He also said opponents of Narita Airport expansion are "squeaky wheels, or I believe they are (the product) of bad postwar education." He continued that it is "regrettable" that the airport has not been able to expand because "people lack the spirit of sacrificing for the public good." He also described Japan as being "ethnically homogenous," which invited the criticism of representatives of Japan's indigenous Ainu population, who were just recognized by the Diet earlier this year as a non-Japanese people native to Japan. ¶4. (U) Prime Minister Taro Aso has appointed Kazuyoshi Kaneko to succeed Nakayama at MLIT. Kaneko, 65, a member of the Koga Faction, represents Gifu Prefecture's Fourth District. He was first elected to the Diet in 1986. He was the Minister for Administrative Reform under Koizumi (2003-2004) and has served as Chair of the House of Representatives Budget Committee. Having held positions as parliamentary Vice Minister of Construction and head of the LDP's construction committee, he is considered knowledgeable about construction and transportation issues. Son of Ippei Kaneko, a former Finance Minister, Kaneko was a banker prior to his election to the Lower House. His hobbies include tennis. ¶5. (U) Septel contains additional reporting on the political aspect of Nakayama's resignation. SCHIEFFER