Keizo Obuchi

The head of Japan's Defense Agency stepped down today, one day after releasing an internal agency report that exposed a cover-up at the highest levels in a growing corruption scandal. Fukushiro Nukaga handed his resignation to Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi after a morning Cabinet meeting, an agency spokesman said. Nukaga, who served in the post since July, will be replaced by fellow ruling party lawmaker Hosei Norota, news reports said.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin reiterated Sunday to the visiting Japanese foreign minister that Beijing is determined to avoid devaluing its yuan currency, a Japanese official said. Jiang told Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura that Beijing would continue efforts to keep its currency stable, despite the financial crisis that had spread from Southeast Asia across the region, the official said.

The head of a key Japanese bank reform agency was forced from office after opposition politicians released a tape recording of him offering to shield weak financial institutions from scrutiny by government auditors. The abrupt departure of Michio Ochi was precipitated by a speech last week in which he promised to give his "utmost consideration" to lenders who complain that auditors are being too tough. Ochi had been named chief of Japan's Financial Reconstruction Commission last fall.

A candidate backed by Japan's ruling coalition won an important local election Sunday, giving a badly needed boost to Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's government. Fusae Ota's win makes her Japan's first female governor, succeeding Isamu Yokoyama, who resigned in December as governor of Osaka amid charges of sexual harassment.

Japanese leaders reacted sharply today to the approval of an omnibus trade bill by the House of Representatives and urged President Reagan to veto it quickly. The bill, passed Thursday by a vote of 312 to 107, targets foreign markets closed to U.S. industry. "The government of Japan will continue to reiterate its apprehension to the U.S. side, the Administration in particular, hoping strongly that such a bill will not be enacted," Foreign Minister Sosuke Uno said.

Hundreds of people gathered at a Buddhist temple in downtown Tokyo on Wednesday to mourn Noboru Takeshita, one of Japan's political kingmakers long after he was driven from office as prime minister. The solemn sound of monks singing penetrated the muggy air as the private ceremony began. Takeshita, who died of respiratory failure Monday at age 76, was an influential and scandal-tainted politician who was forced from office in 1989 after admitting to accepting bribes from a marketing company.

Japan's troubled Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan Ltd. said that it formally asked to be nationalized under new legislation aimed at revitalizing the country's crisis-ridden financial sector. The LTCB submitted its request to Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi just hours after the financial stabilization legislation took effect, said a bank spokesman. If approved, it would mark the first government takeover of a bank since the end of World War II. LTCB has struggled under a massive load of bad loans.

President Clinton on Friday said he had ordered a safety review of U.S. nuclear installations following an accident at a Japanese nuclear fuel plant in which at least 49 people were exposed to radiation, some at potentially lethal levels. "I thought that we ought to have all of our people learn everything we could about what happened there, analyze our systems here and make sure we've done everything we can to protect ourselves," Clinton said.

Japan's Cabinet approved a record economic stimulus package today worth nearly $200 billion in an attempt to bring the country out of its worst recession in decades. The massive plan was aimed at turning around the Japanese economy by next year, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi told reporters after the decision. "We must do all we can to cut the vicious cycle of recession in order to put the nation's economy back into recovery," Obuchi said.