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PP RUEHFK RUEHKSO RUEHNAG RUEHNH
DE RUEHKO #2731 2740901
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P 300901Z SEP 08
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UNCLAS TOKYO 002731 
 
SIPDIS 
 
EEB/TRA/AN FOR DAS JOHN BYERLY 
DOT FOR KEITH GLATZ 
USTR FOR MICHAEL BEEMAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAIR PGOV ELTN ETRD JA
SUBJECT: TRANSPORTATION MINISTER RESIGNS AFTER FIVE DAYS 
 
REF: TOKYO 2639 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: Only five days after his appointment, MLIT 
Minister Nariaki Nakayama formally resigned September 28 
after a series of controversial remarks.  Prime Minister Aso 
appointed Kazuyoshi Kaneko, a Lower House member with 
experience in construction and budget issues, to replace 
Nakayama. Japanese press and other commentators note the 
remarks and subsequent resignation come at an awkward time 
for the new Aso administration.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (U) Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and 
Tourism (MLIT) Minister Nariaki Nakayama formally resigned 
September 28 after making a series of highly publicized 
statements highlighting his strongly nationalist and 
right-wing views.  In a press conference after his 
resignation, Nakayama said, "I was determined to fulfill my 
mission in a key cabinet post, but I have decided to step 
down from that post, since my remarks may undermine Diet 
deliberations amid the growing economic crisis."  Nakayama 
was unapologetic about his criticisms of Japan's teachers' 
union, however, following his resignation. 
 
¶3. (U) Among the remarks which drew the ire of the opposition 
and some in the press, Nakayama called Japan's largest 
teachers' union (affiliated with the Communist Party) "a 
cancer on Japanese education" September 25 and said the union 
should disband.  He also said opponents of Narita Airport 
expansion are "squeaky wheels, or I believe they are (the 
product) of bad postwar education."  He continued that it is 
"regrettable" that the airport has not been able to expand 
because "people lack the spirit of sacrificing for the public 
good."  He also described Japan as being "ethnically 
homogenous," which invited the criticism of representatives 
of Japan's indigenous Ainu population, who were just 
recognized by the Diet earlier this year as a non-Japanese 
people native to Japan. 
 
¶4. (U) Prime Minister Taro Aso has appointed Kazuyoshi Kaneko 
to succeed Nakayama at MLIT.  Kaneko, 65, a member of the 
Koga Faction, represents Gifu Prefecture's Fourth District. 
He was first elected to the Diet in 1986.  He was the 
Minister for Administrative Reform under Koizumi (2003-2004) 
and has served as Chair of the House of Representatives 
Budget Committee.  Having held positions as parliamentary 
Vice Minister of Construction and head of the LDP's 
construction committee, he is considered knowledgeable about 
construction and transportation issues.  Son of Ippei Kaneko, 
a former Finance Minister, Kaneko was a banker prior to his 
election to the Lower House.  His hobbies include tennis. 
 
¶5. (U) Septel contains additional reporting on the political 
aspect of Nakayama's resignation. 
SCHIEFFER