More drunken episodes from the life of Shoichi Nakagawa
Mainichi finds more stories of Shoichi Nakagawa‘s alcohol-fueled antics:
In 2006, when Nakagawa was head of the LDP’s Policy Research Council, he was late for a meeting between the secretaries general of the ruling parties, the Policy Research Council chiefs and the Diet affairs chiefs. He was in an inebriated state, and walked drunkenly, nearly bumping into a pillar of the Tokyo hotel where the meeting was held.
In September 2004, when Nakagawa held the post of minister of economy, trade and industry, he held a farewell news conference in line with the Cabinet reshuffle under the administration of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and then left the ministry and was drinking at another location. However, he was reappointed, and in a flurry he headed back to the prime minister’s office, participating in his first Cabinet meeting drunk.
Nakagawa had also been spotted in an inebriated state in his home prefecture of Hokkaido. During the House of Representatives election in June 2000, Nakagawa swayed back and forward as he shouted out cheers to celebrate being elected for a sixth term when he turned up at his election campaign office in the Hokkaido city of Obihiro. When he painted in the eye of a daruma doll — a ritual often performed by election winners — he put too much ink on the brush and ended up giving the doll black tears, flustering those around him.
In a separate party of supporters that was held in the Hokkaido town of Honbetsu in June 2005, several officials said that Nakagawa appeared drunk in front of about 2,000 supporters. He slurred his speech and finished his greeting in a few minutes. He ended by being criticized by a local official, who told him he should give a proper greeting.
A news clip posted on Yoshimi Watanabe‘s YouTube channel also mentions Nakagawa acting drunk at a reception for visiting royals, as well as a time when he drunkenly declared himself “global defense minister.”
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