Japanese Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba faced pressure on Thursday from within his own party to resign after a destroyer crashed into a fishing boat, a departure that would be a blow for struggling Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.
An unnamed executive in Ishiba’s own Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was quoted by the Nikkei daily as saying Ishiba must consider resigning over his handling of an inquiry into the collision, showing that pressure for the minister to go went beyond a chorus of such calls from opposition politicians.
With public support for Fukuda sliding below 30 per cent, a level seen by analysts as critical to his survival, the leader can ill afford to lose a minister seen by analysts and voters as one of his most competent.
Conflicting reports about the circumstances of the crash between the destroyer Atago and a small fishing vessel on Feb 19, which left two men missing in the ocean, have sparked accusations of a cover-up, adding to pressure on Ishiba from a series of previous defence scandals.
He has admitted his ministry took some inappropriate actions but denied any attempt to hide information, adding that he would resign if there was a cover-up.
If he goes, Ishiba would be the first minister to step down from Fukuda’s five-month-old cabinet. He is already the fourth defence minister in the space of a year.
The destroyer’s navigator was flown to Tokyo for questioning at the ministry hours after the crash, including by Ishiba, and Japanese media have reported the coastguard investigators looking into the incident had not been informed.
“Resignation must be an option,” the Nikkei quoted a senior LDP executive as saying, while Yukio Hatoyama, secretary-general of the main opposition Democratic Party, reiterated his call for Ishiba to step down.
However, Fukuda said he should stay in place to root out the cause of the collision and overhaul the ministry, which has been rocked by a series of scandals over procurement and leaks of classified information in the past year.
“(Ishiba) has the big task of reforming the defence ministry, and I would like him to do so thoroughly,” Fukuda told reporters.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said he did not believe anyone in the ruling party had called on Ishiba to go.
Ishiba’s reputation as a defence expert might enable him to stay on despite the calls for him to depart, an analyst said.
“He’s looked upon as the most competent spokesman for the LDP’s security policy, so his loss, if it comes to that, would be rather significant,” said Jeff Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University’s Tokyo campus.
In other defence minister resignations over the past year, Fumio Kyuma quit in July after offending many Japanese by saying the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 “could not be helped”.
His successor, Yuriko Koike, was replaced weeks later by Masahiko Komura as part of a cabinet reshuffle. Ishiba took the job in another reshuffle when Fukuda took power in September.
A poll published by the Sankei Shimbun this week found only 28.7 per cent of respondents supported Fukuda, compared with 55.3 percent when he took office.
Almost half said he should reshuffle his cabinet, but 43 per cent said they approved of Ishiba, far higher than some other ministers.
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