World : Japan Names New Justice Minister

Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita appointed his second justice minister of the week today as his scandal-buffeted government lurched toward the end of what commentators are calling a gloomy year in Japanese politics.

Takeshita had to reach outside the world of politics to name a new justice minister, picking Masami Takatsuji, 78, a former Supreme Court justice with experience in drafting legislation as a bureaucrat in the 1960s and 1970s. On Tuesday, the prime minister appointed Takashi Hasegawa, a 76-year-old member of Parliament, to the justice portfolio. But Hasegawa lasted only 60 hours as it became known that he had received donations for years from Recruit Co., which the Justice Ministry is investigating on suspicion of bribery.