[September 27, 2008]

Nakayama decides to resign over controversial remarks+

(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TOKYO, Sept. 27_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: INCORPORATING STORY HEADLINED 'NAKAYAMA CALLS SCHOOLTEACHERS' UNION 'CANCER,' DISMISSAL CALLS TO RISE)

New transport minister Nariaki Nakayama has decided to resign from his Cabinet post after making a series of remarks widely taken to be gaffes, including one in which he called the nation's biggest schoolteachers' union "is a cancer," sources familiar with the matter said Saturday.

Nakayama, 65, is expected to offer his resignation to Prime Minister Taro Aso on Sunday morning prior to an extraordinary Cabinet meeting, the sources said.

Nakayama is expected to tell Aso that his remarks brought about a stalemate in politics and that he wants to avoid negative effects on policy implementation by his ministry, they said.

The resignation could be a serious blow to Prime Minister Taro Aso as he is seeking to dissolve the House of Representatives at an early date for a general election.

Aso appointed Nakayama as land, infrastructure, transport and tourism minister in his Cabinet formed Tuesday after assuming the premiership the same day.

The series of controversial remarks Nakayama made since his appointment have drawn intense criticism from both ruling and opposition parties.

Ichiro Ozawa, president of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, said Nakayama's remarks "lack insights and are imprudent and unfair" while questioning his qualification to be a state minister.

A senior lawmaker of the New Komeito party, the junior coalition partner of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, called for Nakayama's early resignation, saying the issue should be resolved before Aso makes a policy speech at the Diet on Monday.

Nakayama told reporters after arriving at Tokyo's Haneda airport from Miyazaki on Saturday evening that he will "decide on his own whether to resign."

"I'll consult with my wife tonight," Nakayama said. Nakayama's wife Kyoko, a member of the House of Councillors, served as state minister in charge of declining birthrate and abduction issues under the previous Cabinet led by former Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said he plans to have Nakayama explain what he really meant by his remarks as early as Sunday.

At a meeting Saturday in Miyazaki organized by the prefectural chapter of the LDP, Nakayama, a former education minister and longtime critic of the schoolteachers' union, said, "I've been thinking Nikkyoso should be disbanded."

Nikkyoso refers to the Japan Teachers Union, the nation's largest union of schoolteachers and staff members.

"I have things to say about Nikkyoso. The biggest problem is that it opposes ethics education. Some of the people in Nikkyoso have taken actions that are unthinkable to me," he said, in apparent reference to the demonstration union members staged around the Diet buildings in Tokyo in 2006.

At the time, lawmakers were deliberating revisions to the Fundamental Law of Education in an extraordinary session of parliament.

The revisions that passed the Diet and were enforced in December 2006 were aimed at instilling patriotism in classrooms and nurturing respect for the public spirit.

After Saturday's meeting, Nakayama told reporters, "I will stand at the forefront to destroy Nikkyoso, which is a cancer for Japanese education."

He also said of his ministerial post in Miyazaki, "I don't mean to cling to my post saying, 'I will never resign.' I want to see what happens."

In media interviews this week, Nakayama said the union is to blame for the bribery scandal involving the Oita prefectural board of education.

"The woeful state of Oita Prefecture's board of education boils down to Nikkyoso. Nikkyoso (members') children can become teachers even if their grades are bad. That's why the aptitude levels in Oita Prefecture are low," he said.

In the media interviews, Nakayama also referred to the government's policy to attract foreign tourists to Japan and called Japan "ethnically homogenous," a description that drew protests in 1986 from the Ainu indigenous people when then Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone made a similar remark.

Nakayama also said that those who have engaged in years of struggle against the construction of Narita airport near Tokyo are "more or less squeaky wheels, or I believe they are (the product) of bad postwar education."

Nakayama has retracted the series of remarks in the media interviews and apologized.

Copyright ? 2008 Kyodo News International, Inc.

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