Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara Resigns
Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara has decided to resign in the face of a scandal over his acceptance of illegal political donations from a foreign national:
Japan’s foreign minister has announced his resignation in a televised news conference over donations he received from a foreign resident in violation of the country’s laws.
Seiji Maehara, who had been seen as a likely successor to Naoto Kan, the country’s current prime minister, said on Sunday he was stepping down after admitting he received several hundred dollars from a Japanese-born woman of Korean ethnicity, who owns a restaurant.
“I apologise to the Japanese people for stepping down after only six months and provoking distrust over a problem with my political funding, although I have sought to pursue a clean style of politics,” Maehara said.
The resignation is another blow to the embattled administration of Kan, whose public approval rating has fallen below 20 per cent.
An editorial in the Yomiuri had some pretty harsh things to say about Maehara:
This is a problem that cannot be forgiven just because the amount of money involved was small or because he may not have received it intentionally.
The Political Funds Control Law prohibits politicians from receiving donations related to their political activities from foreign nationals, corporations and organizations. The purpose of this prohibition is to prevent intervention in Japan’s politics by foreign countries.
Especially when politicians intentionally receive such donations, they may be subject to punishments such as imprisonment, fine and suspension of civil rights–including the right to vote or run for public office.
[...]
Maehara said his association with the female South Korean resident of Kyoto began during his middle school days, but he denied he intentionally received the money. He said he learned of the donation only a day before the Budget Committee meeting.
To begin with, it is common sense for politicians that political donations from foreign nationals are illegal. Moreover, Maehara is now the top government official responsible for steering Japan’s diplomacy.
Even if he really did not know about the donations, it is problematic that his office accepted them so easily. He cannot escape his responsibility to supervise his own office staff.
Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Katsuya Okada called it “a clerical mistake,” but the problem should not be brushed off so easily and irresponsibly.
Maehara has been a sharp critic of the money and politics scandals surrounding former DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa.
However, in addition to the illegal donation issue, other problems also surfaced. For example, a company that did not buy tickets to a fund-raising party was erroneously listed as having done so in Maehara’s 2009 political funds report. Also, his political organization received donations that year from a company at which an executive had been investigated by police in a tax evasion case.
We cannot help but conclude Maehara is too careless.
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