Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida sacked the Justice Minister on Friday after Yasuhiro Hanashi was criticized for a joke about the death penalty, Japanese public television NHK reported.
Hanashi, who assumed the justice portfolio after the government reorganization in August, was at the center of the controversy this week, after commenting that the justice minister is a low-profile position, which can only be news “when he signs a execution”. “.
“Serving as justice minister doesn’t help raise a lot of money or secure a lot of votes,” Hanashi said during a political meeting, comments that drew criticism from inside and outside the pro-government Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
Hanashi “must play his role … realizing the weight of his professional position,” Fumio Kishida said during a parliamentary session on Thursday, without referring to the possibility of dismissing the minister.
“These were rash words and I take [a reação] seriously, not to do anything like this again from now on. I’m sorry,” Hanashi said hours before he was fired.
Hanashi’s departure represents a new setback for Kishida, plunged into a popularity crisis due to the links of members of the executive with the controversial religious group Unification Church, which caused the resignation, in October, of a head of the Ministry of Economy.
The low approval rating of the Kishida government has also been the subject of other scandals, including the alleged embezzlement of public funds by the Minister of the Interior and Communications, Minoru Terrada.
Source: TSF
