Former Japanese Finance Minister Nakagawa Found Dead
October 4th, 2009Via: Bloomberg:
Shoichi Nakagawa, who resigned as Japanese finance minister in February amid accusations of drunken behavior during an international conference in Rome, was found dead in his Tokyo home today. He was 56.
Nakagawa lost his parliamentary seat in Aug. 30 elections that saw the Liberal Democratic Party swept out of power after half a century of almost unbroken rule. He was not offered one of the party’s proportional representation seats.
A second-generation LDP lawmaker, Nakagawa was regarded as one of the party’s “aces,” according to Makoto Haga, chief strategist at Monex Group Inc. in Tokyo, who called his death a “painful blow” to a party that needs to rebuild.
“Compared with the widespread mistrust of the LDP, Nakagawa’s troubles didn’t have much impact on the election,” Haga said today. “The result would likely have been the same regardless.”
Police confirmed Nakagawa’s death and are investigating the cause, said a spokeswoman at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, who declined to be identified. Masato Yoshida, head of Nakagawa’s office in Obihiro, northern Japan, also confirmed earlier reports of the death by Kyodo News.
