Tokyo, crisis to the government Tanaka dismissed

TOKYO – The latest controversy took the place of Makiko Tanaka, the first woman to become foreign minister in Japan. Yesterday Prime Minister Koizumi dismissed her and together with her he chased his deputy, Yoshiji Nogami, also asking for the head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee president, Muneo Suzuki. Tanaka was accused of disputing the ban on two non-governmental organizations participating in the recent international conference on Afghanistan. The foreign minister had indicated to Suzuki, a powerful exponent of the Liberal Democrats, the architect of the exclusion, finding the support of the opposition, which went so far as to boycott parliamentary work to demonstrate its support for the minister. Which Koizumi didn’t accept. “He summoned me and gave me the sack,” Makiko Tanaka, daughter of Kanuei Tanaka, a famous premier in the 1970s, explained to journalists. she burst into tears. “Crying is the great weapon of women,” Koizumi commented cynically, before firing the minister. Makiko Tanaka is very popular among voters also for her battle against the ministerial bureaucracy that has instead alienated her from the political world.

January 30 2002