Takaichi starts Diet session having to deal with agriculture minister’s scandal
Kazuo Yana reportedly cut road budgets for two municipalities after their mayors declined to support him in February's election.
As parliament opens its autumn session, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi faces a new political scandal involving the agriculture minister. The controversy could complicate the government's legislative agenda and question her leadership. Kazuo Yana, the newly appointed agriculture minister, is at the center of the controversy following reports of him significantly reducing road budgets in municipalities in Tochigi Prefecture.
The scandal emerged from an audio recording from May, revealed last Wednesday, which shows Yana telling a May meeting of his local Liberal Democratic Party branch office that the budget cuts were made after the mayors of Nakagawa and Nasukarasuyama did not support him in the February Lower House election. The transport ministry confirmed on Tuesday that the road budgets of these two municipalities were cut to about half of the projected amount for the fiscal year 2025.
As Takaichi begins her first Diet session as prime minister, she must navigate this scandal and its potential implications for her government's policies and her own leadership.
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