Minister Might Have Pressured on Unpreferable Budget

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Kazuo Yana, is doubted that he had pressured Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) not to appropriate for building roads in specific cities. Those cities are located in the electoral district of Yana and Yana’s request to MLIT can be interpreted as retaliation to the cities which supported the contender against Yana in the last election. Yana mostly admitted that he had told about his behavior in a meeting with his supporters. 

Yana is a member of House of Representative, affiliated with the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), in his sixth term. In the last election in February 2026, Yana was defeated by an independent candidate in District 3 of Tochigi. Because he lost with a relatively small margin, however, he was resurrected in proportional district. In the reshuffle of cabinet in September, Takaichi picked Yana for agriculture minister.

 

Weekly Bunshun magazine recently reported that Yana made an inappropriate speech to his supporters on May 24th. In an annual convention of LDP Otawara branch, which is one of the branches in District 3 in Tochigi, Yana indicated that he lobbied to MLIT to cut budget for building roads in Nasukarasuyama city and Nakagawa town. The mayors of Nasukarasuyama and Nakagawa supported another candidate and it caused the defeat of Yana in the February election.

 

There is no law to prohibit consultation of a lawmaker with a ministry on formulation of annual budget. However, a ministry effectively has power to select projects through appropriation of budget. Lawmakers can check the budget plan of ministries, because they are authorized to examine and pass the budget bill in the Diet. A leading party thus have a great influence to ministries. Yana could have pressured the MLIT not to appropriate a budget which he did not prefer. In other words, it could be a blackmail to the mayors who did not support him.

 

Yana admitted that he had made such a speech in a press conference on October 2nd, but denied his pressure to the MLIT. While Bunshun reported it based on recorded voice of Yana’s speech, Yana insisted that he had not listened to the recorded voice and refused reconfirming whose voice it was. “If I had made a speech which was misunderstood, I will take it seriously,” said Yana, without apology or regret. He said that he would continue as the agriculture minister.

 

Doubt on Yana made the first scandal on Takaichi Cabinet after the reshuffle. Yana is one of the two ministers who were involved in kickback fund scandal in 2023. He failed in reporting 17.46 million yen of fund for five years which he received from former Abe faction. He was suspended his status for some leader’s position of the LDP for six months. Appointing Yana for agriculture minister was the first example of picking a lawmaker in the scandal for cabinet minister.

 

Takaichi must have thought that the kickback scandal was over. But in a poll conducted by Asahi Shimbun right after the reshuffle of cabinet, 68 percent thought that appointing the lawmakers to cabinet ministers was a problem, while 30 percent did not. If she mishandles the issue of Yana’s behavior as a lawmaker, it may cause further decline of approval rate of Takaichi Cabinet.

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