 Bộ trưởng Tomomi Inada bị phóng viên vây quanh khi đến cơ quan vào sáng 27/7. Ảnh: KYODO |
Tờ Mainichi (Nhật Bản) dẫn nguồn hãng tin Kyodo cho hay, thông tin trên được Thủ tướng Nhật Bản Shinzo Abe cho biết ngày 28/7. Theo đó, nữ Bộ trưởng Quốc phòng đầu tiên của Nhật Bản Tomomi Inada đã xin từ chức để nhận trách nhiệm liên quan những cáo buộc về việc che giấu những báo cáo ghi lại các hoạt động hàng ngày của các binh sĩ Nhật Bản tham gia lực lượng gìn giữ hòa bình của Liên hợp quốc tại Nam Sudan.
Ông Abe nói rằng ông đã chấp nhận đơn từ chức này. Động thái từ chức này diễn ra chỉ vài ngày trước khi diễn ra cuộc cải tổ nội các dự kiến được tiến hành vào tuần tới.
Bà Inada đã rời vị trí Bộ trưởng Quốc phòng Nhật Bản ngay cả khi bà đã bác bỏ đóng vai trò trong cáo buộc che giấu thông tin trên. Đây là bộ trưởng thứ sáu từ chức kể từ khi nội các của Thủ tướng Abe bắt đầu điều hành đất nước tháng 12/2012.
.jpg "Nữ Bộ trưởng Quốc phòng Nhật Bản từ chức ảnh 2") Binh sĩ Lực lượng Phòng vệ mặt đất Nhật Bản khi đến Juba, Nam Sudan, tháng 11/2016. |
Defense Minister Tomomi Inada has tendered her resignation to take responsibility over a suspected coverup involving the daily activity logs of Japanese troops serving as U.N. peacekeepers in South Sudan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Friday.
The move by one of Abe's favorite Cabinet ministers, who shares his conservative views, comes just before a Cabinet reshuffle planned next week in which the prime minister was already widely expected to replace her.
Inada has denied playing a role in the alleged coverup.
The fourth-term lower house member is the sixth minister to resign since the start of Abe's second stint as prime minister in December 2012. In April, then disaster reconstruction minister Masahiro Imamura stepped down for saying it was "a good thing" the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan rather than the much more-populous Tokyo area.
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida will take over Inada's duties alongside his own until a new defense chief is appointed.
In a bid to regain public trust in the Defense Ministry and the Self-Defense Forces, Abe is considering picking someone with prior experience in Inada's post as a new defense minister, such as Itsunori Onodera, according to sources close to the government and ruling coalition.
Inada's departure coincides with the ministry's release of the results of its internal probe into the suspected coverup.
The logs recorded the deteriorating security situation in the fledgling African country and their disclosure last year could have adversely impacted the government's push to continue the troops' participation in the U.N. mission and assign new, and possibly riskier, security responsibilities during the mission.
The controversy regarding the logs dates back to December, when the ministry turned down an information disclosure request for logs covering the Ground Self-Defense Force activities in South Sudan in July last year, saying the logs had been deleted.
The ministry then reversed its previous explanation, saying some of the data had been found on a computer in the SDF Joint Staff Office and releasing sections of it.
But top SDF officials reportedly already knew then that the GSDF actually had the data. Government sources claim Inada approved a coverup.
The 58-year-old lawyer-turned-politician assumed the defense portfolio in the previous Cabinet reshuffle in August last year.
Defense Minister Tomomi Inada has tendered her resignation to take responsibility over a suspected coverup involving the daily activity logs of Japanese troops serving as U.N. peacekeepers in South Sudan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Friday.
The move by one of Abe's favorite Cabinet ministers, who shares his conservative views, comes just before a Cabinet reshuffle planned next week in which the prime minister was already widely expected to replace her.
Inada has denied playing a role in the alleged coverup.
The fourth-term lower house member is the sixth minister to resign since the start of Abe's second stint as prime minister in December 2012. In April, then disaster reconstruction minister Masahiro Imamura stepped down for saying it was "a good thing" the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan rather than the much more-populous Tokyo area.
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida will take over Inada's duties alongside his own until a new defense chief is appointed.
In a bid to regain public trust in the Defense Ministry and the Self-Defense Forces, Abe is considering picking someone with prior experience in Inada's post as a new defense minister, such as Itsunori Onodera, according to sources close to the government and ruling coalition.
Inada's departure coincides with the ministry's release of the results of its internal probe into the suspected coverup.
The logs recorded the deteriorating security situation in the fledgling African country and their disclosure last year could have adversely impacted the government's push to continue the troops' participation in the U.N. mission and assign new, and possibly riskier, security responsibilities during the mission.
The controversy regarding the logs dates back to December, when the ministry turned down an information disclosure request for logs covering the Ground Self-Defense Force activities in South Sudan in July last year, saying the logs had been deleted.
The ministry then reversed its previous explanation, saying some of the data had been found on a computer in the SDF Joint Staff Office and releasing sections of it.
But top SDF officials reportedly already knew then that the GSDF actually had the data. Government sources claim Inada approved a coverup.
The 58-year-old lawyer-turned-politician assumed the defense portfolio in the previous Cabinet reshuffle in August last year.
