Seijigiri #54: Fallout fom the Nakagawa Incident, and Koizumi Ramps up the Pressure
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In this edition of Seijigiri, co-hosts Garrrett DeOrio and Ken Worsley begin by discussing the problems revealed by former Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa recent resignation. After appearing drunk and incomprehensible at the G7 meetings in Rome last weekend, media pressure mounted on Nakagawa and he was forced to resign earlier this week.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party continues to be dogged by public relations issues, and seems unable to conduct itself in a manner that would lead to the building of public trust. This portion of the show includes several audio samples, and the source videos are available below. Garrett chides Ken for referring to the incident as “Nakagawa-gate,” and Ken decides that it should be referred to as 中川門 (Nakagawa-mon) from now on.
The last ten minutes of the show focus on pressure being put on Prime Minister Taro Aso from former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. After Aso stated that he wasn’t a true believer in postal privatization, Koizumi hit back, saying he wondered if Mr Aso knew why the LDP had so many seats in the Diet, and that he would abstain from voting to fifty-nine* through the economic stimulus package that Aso is counting on getting passed.
As always, thank you for listening! Videos follow the break:
Nakagawa at the G7 press conference:
There are many, many videos of Nakagawa’s press conference out there. Some of the samples used in this recording come from the video above, but two other videos were used.
Audio of Nakagawa arriving home is on this video, at about the 0:50 mark. Audio of the drinking party attended by both Aso and Nakagawa is at about the 1:30 point:
Video of Aso’s comments in the Diet seem to have been pulled, although I will look for an alternate version.
There are several videos of Koizumi announcing he would refrain from participating in the re-vote of the economic stimulus bill in the lower house. This video focuses on Koizumi:
*For those who are just joining us, to “fifty-nine” a bill is the Seijigiri-coined term for pushing it through the Diet through the use of a supermajority in the Lower House after its rejection by the Upper House, in accordance with Article 59 of the Constitution. We use it as a neutral alternative to such forceful terms as “ramming” or “forcing.”
Related Posts:
- Seijigiri #34: Fukuda keeps the Faction Heads Happy and Koizumi’s “Great Mane of Richard Gere-ness” (with Adam Richards)
- Seijigiri #28: The Upper House Campaign Gets Underway, Kyuma and Koike
- Shoichi Nakagawa Found Dead
- Seijigiri #52: Armitage in Tokyo, Six Party Talks, and the Aso Premiership Under Siege
- Koizumi to retire from politics
