Embattled Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso on Friday bowed to criticism of his brief tenure in office but lashed out at the opposition for boycotting key debates in parliament.
“I have faced a lot of criticism. I would like to accept the criticism sincerely and humbly,” Aso told reporters in Peru, where he was attending a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders.
Aso, who took office in September, most recently came under fire for criticizing the medical profession, saying that many doctors lacked basic common sense. He later apologized.
The outspoken conservative was also forced to retract remarks hinting at a review of privatization of the postal service — a key achievement of former reformist prime minister Junichiro Koizumi — as he had not consulted his party on the sensitive matter.
The Aso government’s approval rating has already plunged below 30 percent, emboldening the opposition, which is pushing him to call snap elections.
But Aso denounced the opposition, which controls one house of parliament, for refusing to begin debate on a bill to allow the government to inject public funds into small banks in the world’s second largest economy.
“How long does the opposition want to refuse to vote?” Aso asked. “The law on strengthening finances is significant. I’m sure the public will see a big impact if they go all the way with the opposition.”
He remained tight-lipped on elections, which must be called by September next year, saying: “I have not yet decided what should be the deciding factor.”
Aso’s Liberal Democratic Party has been in power for all but 10 months since 1955 but has gone through four prime ministers in the past two years amid a string of scandals, a troubled economy and legislative deadlock.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver