Japan to Ask Ambassador to Resign

Japan’s outspoken foreign minister caved in to orders from the prime minister Thursday, agreeing to dismiss Tokyo’s ambassador to Washington and three other officials over a series of embezzlement scandals.

Makiko Tanaka had resisted Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s request to remove Ambassador Shunji Yanai, saying earlier in the day that she needed his experience to plan for President Bush’s visit to Tokyo in October.

But late Thursday night, she said she would ask Yanai and three other senior officials to resign.

“I have reported that I will accept Prime Minister Koizumi’s basic policy that the [officials] should resign,” Tanaka said after a meeting with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda.

In recent weeks, Tanaka has been under pressure from the rest of Koizumi’s Cabinet to request the resignations of Yanai and the other officials, all of whom held the position of vice foreign minister while money was allegedly being embezzled.