censure

問責決議案が可決されても、居直りを続ける体たらく。ラテン語のこの言葉はやはりsureと関係があります。しかし、すごい根性ですね。（カメ女）

Two cabinet ministers censured in Diet in blow to Noda
POLITICS DEC. 09, 2011 - 04:40PM JST ( 24 )

Two cabinet ministers were censured Friday by the upper house of the Diet, in a blow to the three-month old government of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

“It is clear that Defense Minister (Yasuo) Ichikawa… is threatening Japan’s national security and damaging the national interest by his irresponsible words and attitudes,” the motion said.

The opposition-controlled upper house passed the motion against Ichikawa, with 130 of the 239 lawmakers approving the move after he made a series of gaffes that riled the people of Okinawa, reluctant hosts to a large U.S. military presence.

A separate censure motion was also passed against Kenji Yamaoka, the minister for consumer affairs.

Yamaoka has been alleged to have ties with business groups known for running pyramid schemes, and stands accused of not being an appropriate person to be in charge of consumer affairs.

The censures are non-binding, but the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has threatened to boycott the Diet from January if the pair stay in place.

The boycott would paralyze parliament and leave Noda’s legislative program deadlocked.

“It will not be a benefit to the Japanese people if they retain their jobs,” said Masashi Waki, a senior LDP member in charge of parliamentary affairs. “It is our duty to submit censure motions when we consider the person is not appropriate for the job.”

Japanese prime ministers—of which Noda is the sixth in five years—are frequently undone by campaigns of attrition.

Opponents, from both inside and outside their own party, chip away at their authority by targeting individual ministers until the man in the top job is fatally undermined.

Opposition groups claimed a very early, and probably unexpected, scalp eight days into Noda’s administration when economy, trade and industry minister Yoshio Hachiro was forced to resign after calling an area near the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant a “town of death.”

The loss of two more ministers at a relatively early stage in his prime ministerial career, although not terminal, would prove damaging to Noda.

Ichikawa found himself in trouble after an official under his aegis made an ill-advised remark during a drinking session with journalists on plans to relocate a U.S. military base on the tropical island of Okinawa.

The official was dismissed after likening the government’s foot-dragging on the plan to forewarning a woman of the intention to rape her.

Despite acting quickly on the issue, Ichikawa needlessly tied a noose around his own neck when he claimed not to know the details of the 1995 rape by three U.S. servicemen of a 12-year-old girl, an incident that became emblematic of Okinawans’ resentment of the heavy U.S. presence on the island.

At a press conference, he then made matters worse by calling the rape a “sexual orgy incident.”

The motion before lawmakers Friday questioned Ichikawa’s qualification for the role of defense minister, doubts he himself raised when he called himself a “layman” on national security immediately after his appointment to the post.

Ichikawa on Friday said he had no wish to leave his post.

“I have to seriously reflect on what brought about this situation, but I would like to fulfil my duty as defense minister,” he told reporters. “My wish has not changed.”

Yamaoka has been alleged to have ties with business groups known for running pyramid schemes, and is accused of not being an appropriate person to be in charge of consumer affairs.

© 2011 AFP