Ex-finance minister found dead
Shoichi Nakagawa resigned his ministry after he appeared to be drunk at an international finance conference in Rome last February.
Monday October 05 2009
Shoichi Nakagawa, who resigned as Japanese finance minister in February amid accusations of drunken behaviour during an international conference in Rome, was found dead in his Tokyo home yesterday. He was 56.
Nakagawa lost his seat in the August elections which saw the Liberal Democratic Party kicked out of office after half a century of almost unbroken rule. He was not offered one of the party's proportional representation seats.
Nakagawa resigned after he slurred his words and appeared to be drunk during a press briefing after finance ministers and central bankers met in Rome on St Valentine's Day to deal with the global economic slowdown. He attributed his behaviour to an overdose of cold medication combined with jet lag.
Nakagawa was regarded as one of the party's "aces", according to Makoto Haga, chief strategist at Monex Group in Tokyo, who called his death a "painful blow" to a party that needs to rebuild.
Police confirmed Nakagawa's death yesterday and are investigating. His wife found him in the second-floor bedroom of their home. No will was found and the cause of death is yet to be determined although the Japanese media are speculating that he died by his own hand.
Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii, who was appointed last month, called Nakagawa's death "regrettable". "He did a good job as finance minister," Fujii told reporters, adding he knew Nakagawa " very well".
As finance minister, Nakagawa urged coordinated policy actions by the US and Europe to rein in the growing global financial crisis. On the domestic front, he promoted a range of economic-stimulus polices including job training for young workers, "some kind of support to the markets" and extension of an earlier guarantee on life insurance policies.
Irish Independent
