Japan Minister Hangs Himself
Japan's agricultural minister died Monday after reportedly hanging himself just hours before he was to face questioning in parliament in a political scandal, officials said.
The death comes just ahead of important elections in July, and as support for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet is plunging.
Toshikatsu Matsuoka, 62, was found unconscious in his apartment and rushed to a hospital, where he was declared dead hours later, a Tokyo Metropolitan Police official said
It was the first suicide by a Japanese cabinet minister since the days immediately after Japan's defeat in the Second World War, according to officials at the national library.
Matsuoka had been dogged by scandal. Along with the utilities questions, he apologized publicly just three days after taking office for not declaring $8,500 in political donations.
Japan's suicide rate is among the highest in the industrialized world. More than 32,000 Japanese took their own lives in 2004, the bulk of them older Japanese suffering financial woes as the country struggled through a decade of economic stagnation.
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