Foreign
Japan’s justice minister resigns after death penalty quip
Japan’s justice minister resigns after death penalty quip
Japan’s justice minister stepped down on Friday, over a scandal in less than a month and forcing a last-minute delay for the embattled premier’s Asia tour.
The justice minister, Yasuhiro Hanashi, became the second minister to leave Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s cabinet.
Kishida’s support has slumped to the 30 percent level in many recent polls, close to a danger zone that would make it hard for him to promote his agenda.
Hanashi had come under widespread criticism over comments reported in the media in which he made light of his duties, specifically signing off on executions, which he referred to as “tedious”.
“I made citizens and ministry staff uncomfortable,” Hanashi told reporters after tendering his resignation to Kishida, referring to his comments about the death penalty.
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Earlier, Hanashi, a member of Kishida’s faction within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), was reported to have suggested there was little political advantage to his cabinet post and that he only made the news for “approving an execution in the morning”.
Japan carried out capital punishment by hanging and does not inform prisoners until the morning of the day of their execution, a policy that rights groups have criticised for decades.
Hanashi apologised on Thursday for the comments and told parliament that he “took them back”.
“I feel great responsibility” for having appointed Hanashi to the post”, Kishida later told reporters after accepting Hanashi’s resignation.
Kishida named Harvard-educated Ken Saito, a former agriculture minister, to replace Hanashi.
The outcry over Hanashi’s comments follows widespread public criticism of the government over ruling party links to the Unification Church, a group some critics call a cult.
Kishida has struggled to overcome revelations of deep and longstanding ties between the ruling party and the church following the July assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The suspected killer has said his mother was bankrupted by the church and has blamed Abe for promoting it.
The LDP has acknowledged many lawmakers have ties to the church but that there was no organisational link to the party.
Economic revitalisation minister Daishiro Yamagiwa resigned on Oct. 24, due to his ties to the religious group, but Kishida came under fire for what voters saw as his delayed and clumsy handling of the situation.
Further damage for Kishida has come from Internal Affairs Minister, Minoru Terada, who has been embroiled in a political funds documentation scandal amid calls that he, too, resign.
A recent 200 billion dollars economic support plan to ease inflationary pains fuelled by the yen’s plunge to 32-year-lows has also failed to boost Kishida’s ratings.
Kishida had been due to travel to Cambodia on Friday for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus 3, but put off his departure until early Saturday, he told reporters.
Japanese media reported that Kishida will hold talks with U.S. President Joe Biden in Cambodia on Sunday and is making final arrangements to have a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping next week in Thailand.
South Korean president apologises over scandal involving gift to wife
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has apologised for his wife’s decision to accept a luxury handbag as a gift, revelations of which have caused a scandal.
Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee, was secretly filmed by a hidden camera accepting the expensive handbag from a third party.
The ensuing controversy has also politically ensnared the conservative president himself.
Yoon said on Thursday that his wife had behaved unwisely at the time and that her behaviour had caused unrest for which he apologised.
His remarks came at Yoon’s first press conference since August 2022, and several weeks after his party was soundly defeated in April’s general election.
The scandal surrounding the first lady was also seen as one of the factors that helped determine the outcome of the election.
Yoon, who previously served as South Korea’s attorney general, rejected the political opposition’s call for additional special investigations into the handbag scandal.
There are already investigations into the incident, he said, and dismissed calls for a special prosecutor as a “political manoeuvre.”
The YouTube channel Voice of Seoul published a video in November that allegedly shows Kim accepting a designer handbag worth around three million (2. 2 thousands U.S. dollars) from the hands of a pastor in Seoul.
The pastor is said to have worked with the YouTube channel and was wearing a hidden camera on his watch during the meeting with Kim.
The channel had reported Kim on allegations that she had violated the anti-corruption law, although it remains unclear whether she actually violated the law, which would require a direct connection between her behaviour and her husband’s political office.
South Korean president apologises over scandal involving gift to wife
Helicopter crashes in India’s Maharashtra, pilot injured
A pilot was on Friday injured after a private helicopter he was flying crashed in India’s western state of Maharashtra, police said.
The PJ helicopter crashed while the pilot was attempting to land at a makeshift landing strip in Mahad of Raigad district.
This is about 170 km south of Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra.
According to officials, the chopper was scheduled to pick up Sushma Andhare, a leader of the Shiv Sena political party.
Sushma was for a public rally in connection with the ongoing general elections in the South Asian country.
Helicopter crashes in India’s Maharashtra, pilot injured
King Charles III returns to public duties after cancer treatment
King Charles III is returning to public duties after the positive effect of his cancer treatment.
King Charles has been receiving care as an outpatient since early February, and sources have said that in spite of the welcome news the king still has cancer and will continue to be treated for the undisclosed form of the disease.
Charles and Queen Consort Camilla will visit a cancer treatment centre on Tuesday to meet medical specialists and patients.
The event aims to raise awareness of the importance of early diagnosis and to highlight innovative research, supported by Cancer Research UK, taking place at the hospital.
King Charles’s diary of events will not be a full summer programme, and attendance will be announced nearer the time and “subject to doctors’ advice,” with “adaptations made where necessary to minimise risk” to his recovery.
It is understood the warmer weather would allow events to be staged outside and lessen the risk posed by other people that many cancer patients face.
In January, King Charles spent three nights in hospital for a procedure on an enlarged prostate, during which his cancer – not prostate cancer – was discovered.
After his diagnosis was announced on February 6, he postponed all public engagements but continued with his duties as head of state behind palace walls, conducting audiences and Privy Council meetings.
Meanwhile, William, the prince of Wales, is to carry out engagements in the North East on Tuesday, visiting an Earthshot Prize finalist firm which makes low-carbon construction materials in Seaham, and opening James’s Place – a centre offering free, life-saving treatment to suicidal men in Newcastle.
A previously unseen portrait of the prince and Kate, princess of Wales, was released by Kensington Palace on Monday in celebration of the couple’s 13th wedding anniversary.
Kate, who is undergoing chemotherapy for an undisclosed cancer, married future king William in 2011.
The photograph by Millie Pilkington – who took the most recent picture of the King and Queen to mark Charles’s return to public duties – shows William and Kate on their wedding day.
The black and white image was posted on the Waleses’ social media accounts on Monday, captioned “13 years ago today!”
King Charles III returns to public duties after cancer treatment
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