UPDATE: Japanese Finance Minister Resigns After Appearing Drunk At Summit (VIDEO)

UPDATE 2/17:

Reuters reports:

Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said on Tuesday he would resign after being forced to deny he was drunk at a G7 news conference, dealing a fresh blow to unpopular Prime Minister Taro Aso in an election year.

Aso asked his close ally Nakagawa to stay in his post on Monday, but pressure for the minister to resign emerged from within his own Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

This past weekend at the G7 Summit in Rome, Japan's Minister of Finance Soichi Nakagawa appeared drunk, reports Times Online. Watch this video of the minister's slurred performance:

While there have been calls to sack the minister, Nakagawa is blaming his composure on cold medicine as The Guardian reports:

Nakagawa - who is known to enjoy a drink - denied he was drunk when he addressed the Japanese press on Saturday. He instead blamed his bumbling and at times incomprehensible performance on an overdose of cold medicine.

Despite his denials, those who have seen footage of the press conference, repeated all day on Japanese TV, agree he had the glassy eyes and sweaty complexion of a man who had enjoyed a few glasses of Chianti too many courtesy of his Italian hosts.

"It is true that I didn't conduct myself properly, and I feel I must set the record straight," the 55-year-old Nakagawa told reporters in Tokyo.

Japan's Prime Minister, Taro Aso, has been battling recent disapproval and this latest stunt from his Finance Minister is just another setback. The Wall Street Journal explains:

Mr. Nakagawa's blunder comes as Mr. Aso's approval rating is dropping sharply, with one poll showing his support rate below 10%. In recent days, members of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party, including former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, have sharply criticized Mr. Aso in public.

Japan's biggest opposition Democratic Party of Japan seized the opportunity to corner the Aso Cabinet. Meanwhile, Mr. Nakagawa's allies remained cautious.

Comments

[noneIn2008]

08:10 PM on 02/17/2009

I'd be drinking too, if I had a trillion in USA debt. Imagine the poor Chinese finance guys. And they see us on a continued spending spree.

[Zenith1959]

10:35 PM on 02/17/2009

Uh, he's Japanese.

[dadw5boys]

06:07 AM on 02/18/2009

Imagine China cashing them in by laying claim to million of ac. of farm land with water rights.

[jymfrancais]

03:05 PM on 02/17/2009

he's loaded all right...

[loki]

03:00 PM on 02/17/2009

cant blame him with whats going on in the economic world today. What the Republicans and Bush have started and is now rolling downhill into the snowball of the century, I think resigning was a godsend for him. at least he doesnt have to burden the effects of greed anymore. Then again, dont know, he might have been part of the plot as well.

[danusgram]

02:59 PM on 02/17/2009

well with the state of the world economy why not go there drunk?

[noneIn2008]

08:11 PM on 02/17/2009

Considering the debt we are loading on the kids, we had better eat, drink and be merry. The kids will need to pay the bill.

[icemilkcoffee]

12:50 PM on 02/17/2009

Oh give the poor man a break. We can all use a stiff drink with all this horrible economic news piling on.

[sheikwil4]

02:25 PM on 02/17/2009

All I have to say is, I'll have a glass of whatever he had. lol

[Kate McKinney]

12:20 PM on 02/17/2009

cold medicine is mostly alcohol, at least the ones like nyquil are. this fact did not help his case.

[ILibertine]

12:03 PM on 02/17/2009

Thought for a moment this was Bush being briefed on "progress" in Iraq.

[GetoffMylawn]

11:45 AM on 02/17/2009

At least he didn't try to give the German chancellor a back massage.

[brand X]

11:41 AM on 02/17/2009

I'll take this guy drunk over G. Bush sober any day.

[ptobe]

11:52 AM on 02/17/2009

You gotta think that maybe we'd all be much better off if G. Bush had enjoyed a few from time to time...

[CloseToTheEdge]

11:39 AM on 02/17/2009

He probably thought someone from the Bush crime family was going to visit and throw up on his suit jacket, so he did it for him.

[BBackSoon]

11:26 AM on 02/17/2009

What a different society. We have thieves and war criminals that are known to have broken our laws and laws of the world and they do nothing, this guy is drunk for a foreign press conference and the shame of it forces him to resign.

Think Blago, or Rove or Maddoff.

It is true, WE HAVE NO SHAME!

[Special K]

11:24 AM on 02/17/2009

Clearly, harakiri is the most honorable thing to do here.

[Takae]

12:33 PM on 02/17/2009

Don't be an idiot, please. It was officially banned during 1880s. Only the most idealist or the most insane would do it now.

[UnknownSoldier]

01:51 PM on 02/17/2009

Maybe they should bring it back and export it to the U.S. I can think of a few Public figures who could give it a go.

[Adrienne Williams]

11:05 AM on 02/17/2009

Just an inside look in to Japan.... there is a known issue regarding the enzyme lining of the Japanese stomach where salarymen (working men) get hammered on the public trains, duo to this missing enzyme. So to see a Japanese man drunk is not news, but seeing him giving a press conference with the Gaiji (or Foreign Press) is the thing that got him fired. I just hope he doesn't hang himself, as shame is a big issue. They take out the whole family, if he can't provide for his family after this. Just a cultural thing. Saw it all the time when I lived there for two years.

[jgirl]

11:49 AM on 02/17/2009

Don't worry,he is not going to hang himself, he'll earn more than enough money even after this happened. Mr.Nakagawa and alcohol come together, we knew that fact.
People around him knew his habit very well, it is embarrassing as Japanese but it's good that people recognize how bad current administration is...we only have 5 % of support for our PM right now. TIME TO CHANGE THE PARTY!!

A Japanese living in NYC.

[Takae]

12:28 PM on 02/17/2009

5%? lol. That's too generous. Try 0.5%!

[Takae]

12:24 PM on 02/17/2009

No, he won't hang himself. He's among the elite after all. He's from a very well-connected and wealthy family. Yes, he's embarrassed Japan for doing this in front of the world, but he'll be forgiven after lying low during his retirement. He'll probably be offered another position elsewhere in a year's--or two--time. But losing this job will not make his family go hungry.

[plages]

10:59 AM on 02/17/2009

Sake to me, Sake to me . . . You had to have been there!

But were still lead by fools!

[solutionrong]

10:53 AM on 02/17/2009

How nice, a drunk finance prime minster dealing with a downward spiral financial crisis.