{
  "id": 12485545,
  "title": "Land ministry says no pressure from embattled farm minister over budgets",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/06/land-ministry-says-no-pressure-from-embattled-farm-minister-over",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-06T22:15:10.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Mainichi",
    "slug": "the-mainichi",
    "url": "https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20261006/p2g/00m/0na/047000c"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Japan's land ministry stated on Tuesday that it received no pressure from the farm minister to reduce road budgets for municipalities led by supporters of a candidate in a February election, following public outrage over the minister's past controversial remarks about the finances. However, the ministry officials disclosed during a press conference that Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Kazuo Yana had reached out to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to inquire about the fiscal 2026 road budgets for two Tochigi Prefecture municipalities in the north of Tokyo. Those who responded to Yana's inquiries claimed they had not experienced any attempts to influence or pressure them, although they acknowledged they could not recall the matter clearly and had no written records. Yana has faced backlash since media reports last week revealed that he had told supporters in his constituency in May that road budgets had been drastically cut for Nasukarasuyama City and Nakagawa Town. Neither city's mayors endorsed him in the February general election. Yana, who serves as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's right-hand man on agricultural policy, lost his single-seat district in Tochigi but retained his House of Representatives seat through proportional representation. He admitted to having made the reported remarks, retracted them and apologized on Monday, stating he had not pressurized the land ministry to reduce the budgets and would not resign. Government subsidies for road budgets for the period up to March 2027 have decreased in three municipalities whose mayors backed Yana's rival, while they have increased in two municipalities with leaders who supported him. Opposition parties expect to probe Takaichi over the matter during deliberations that start on Wednesday in a 69-day extraordinary Diet session that began on Monday, with Democratic Party for the People leader Yuichiro Tamaki emphasizing the issue of administrative fairness.",
  "summary": "TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's land ministry said Tuesday that officials felt no pressure from the farm minister to cut road budgets for municipalities head",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}