Japan Trade Minister Involved in South Korean Dispute Resigns

Japan Trade Minister Isshu Sugawara resigned Oct. 25 following allegations that he violated election law, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, according to an unofficial translation. Sugawara’s duties involved filling a “key post” in Japan’s ongoing trade dispute with South Korea (see 1910240032), according to Reuters. Abe asked Hiroshi Kajiyama, a former member of Abe’s Cabinet, to fill the role. Abe hopes to quickly fill the role to avoid “delay in the important administrative and policy-making fields such as industrial policy, trade policy, and energy policy,” he said.