Finally submits his resignation! The “Surprising Face and Reputation” of Minoru Terada, Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications

Minoru Terada, 64, Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), who has been making headlines in Nagata-cho over the issue of “politics and money,” has submitted his resignation.

Since Terada first joined the Cabinet in August of this year, a series of “politics and money” issues have surfaced. In addition to allegations that a loan of 6 million yen made by Mr. Terada to a related political organization was not recorded in a political fund balance report, there were also suspicions that he may have engaged in campaign bribes in violation of the Public Election Law during last year’s lower house election. The local Minoru Terada Takehara Supporters’ Association (Takehara City, Hiroshima Prefecture) submitted a report naming the deceased as its treasurer, and the handwriting on 11 receipts addressed to “Minoru Terada” received by related political organizations closely resembled that of the deceased, which the media reported as “unnatural.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, where Terada served as a cabinet minister, is in charge of the Political Funds Control Law. Opposition parties have said , “ This is too sloppy and unbelievable. It is impossible,” said Katsuya Okada, secretary general of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. How many times will he be out before he leaves?” ( Keiji Kuroda, chairman of the Communist Party’s National Opposition Committee). Mr. Terada has brushed it off , saying, “I am fulfilling my maximum accountability. However, the continuing reports of the allegations have forced Prime Minister Kishida to decide whether or not to “fire” Terada.

What kind of person is Mr. Terada? He is almost universally described as “unassuming and unobtrusive. Although he was a near-unknown figure nationwide, his background is the exact opposite of the series of ugly stories that have been circulating about him. After graduating from the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo, he entered the Ministry of Finance (now the Ministry of Finance), which was regarded as a top government agency, and earned a master’s degree from Harvard University in the United States. He is a “super elite” who served as chief of the Nagahama Tax Office in Shiga Prefecture when he was still in his twenties. His wife’s grandfather is the late former Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda, and he belongs to the Koikekai (Kishida Faction), the faction led by Prime Minister Kishida. She is also from Hiroshima Prefecture, the same prefecture as Prime Minister Kishida.

This career may have strengthened his sense of “electorate. A bureaucrat who worked for him said, “He usually has a high-handed attitude. I was afraid to deal with him because he would get angry when I made a report or something. Another said, “He was very particular about the details of documents and reports on laws and regulations, administration, and the operation of the Diet. Even if other people approve of it, Mr. Terada will not accept it unless he is satisfied with it. He has a reputation for having a hard time laying the groundwork. He must take great pride in the fact that he is the one who is well versed in national politics,” said a source close to the ruling party. Some government sources report, “He is asked to explain even relatively unimportant matters, such as how he uses his time between jobs, using logic.

The Koikekai has produced former Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and others, and has been called a group of highly educated “court nobles. Some government officials said of Mr. Terada, “There is a person who says, ‘I don’t like him because he looks down on junior members of the Diet as if they are his junior. They do not even listen to such talk, and they embody the bad side of the kogei group. Regarding his political position, a source from Kishida’s faction commented, “He should be the closest advisor to the prime minister, but he is losing that position to his junior deputy chief cabinet secretary Seiji Kihara and others. It sounds good to say that he has no greed, but it gives the impression that he is a disappointing person.

What seems to have further rattled the public’s nerves was Terada’s post-cabinet press conference on November 18. In response to a question about his resignation being discussed within the LDP, Terada countered that he had not heard of it and that he had received encouragement from several party officials. When asked whether the public was convinced, he “brushed off” the question, saying that he had “received great encouragement” from local people and that “all I have heard is ‘I was impressed by the explanation.

A source in Nagata-cho explained, “Since that night, moves to oust Terada have been underway within the administration, and the process to select his successor has begun. Prior to the press conference, Terada was said to have met with Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno after the cabinet meeting on November 18, and some believe that he may have been pressured to resign as a cabinet minister. However, some in the administration have commented , “For some time now, it has been commonplace to talk about ‘when will he quit?'” “His recent statements sound like a ‘sales pitch’ and ‘words bought and sold. As is often the case with smart people, I felt that he was too fixated on insisting that his comments were not illegal and that he could not see the whole picture.

During the current Diet session, Kishida’s Cabinet effectively ousted Economic Revitalization Minister Daishiro Yamaguchi over the issue of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (formerly the Unification Church) and Justice Minister Yasuhiro Hanashi over comments such as, “It only makes the news when they stamp the seal of execution. Terada’s resignation makes him the “third” minister to be ousted, and a domino of resignations has occurred. According to NHK’s November poll, the approval rating of the Cabinet was 3.3%, while the disapproval rating was 3.3%. The poll showed that the approval rating of the Cabinet was 3%, while the disapproval rating was 46%. The administration’s management is already in the danger zone.