POLITICAL SCANDAL IN JAPAN CAUSES CABINET COLLAPSE

Grey River Argus, 8 October 1948, Page 3

POLITICAL SCANDAL IN JAPAN CAUSES CABINET COLLAPSE

TOKIO, October 6.

The collapse of the Ashicla Cabinet has entirely disrupted the Japanese political situation, according to political observers.

The Cabinet is expected to resign at any moment. With the arrest of former Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Nishio, on charges arising from the Showa Denko case, all the major political parties in Japan became involved in the scandal. None of the three Government parties seems likely to be able to form a Government, and the Liberal .Democrats, the principal Opposition party, are believed unwilling to take office with the Showa Denko case still gathering momentum. Allied officials said that probably at least a month of political manoeuvring would result before the political situation became stabilised. Much would depend on the further course of the Showa Denko case, which had already resulted in the arrest of 29 top-ffight Japanese politicians, industrialists and bureauOne high-ranking Allied official predicted the involvement of many more political leaders in the immediate future. (N.Z.P.A.—Reuter.) TOKIO, Oct. 7.

The Japanese Cabinet rtsigned, toda after a conferesce between General MacArthur and Mr Ashida. The Cabinet announced that it accepted the moral responsibility for the Showadenko bribery scandal, involving loans totalling nearly three thousand million yen. Japanese political observers said that every effort would be made in the formation of a new Cabinet to include only those who were free from the taint of any suspicion in the Showadenko scandal, or other similar cases involving political cormotion. This is not expected to be easy, as leading Tokio dailies predicted to-day that more politicians ol Cabinet or former Cabinet rank faced earlv arrest. Speculation now centres on the formation of the “Caretaker” Cabiset under the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Komakichi Matusoka, who would hold office only until the end of the pending special Diet session, after which the Diet, would dissolve for the general election.