Koike declares herself ready to leave post

NEW DELHI (Kyodo) Defense Minister Yuriko Koike indicated Friday she has no wish to retain the post when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reshuffles the Cabinet on Monday.

Yuriko Koike AP PHOTO

Speaking to reporters traveling with her to India, Koike said she wants to "pass the baton to a new minister" to take responsibility for the recent leak of confidential information on high-tech Aegis vessels. The leak, linked to a Maritime Self-Defense Force member, occurred months before Koike took her post but was one of the reasons cited for her choice of a successor to Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya, a decision that caused her to lose a recent showdown with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki.

"No one in the Defense Ministry has yet taken responsibility (for the leak). I want to do so," Koike said.

Koike said she wants a successor who "would rejuvenate (the ministry and realize the extension of the antiterrorism law" and called on the prime minister to select such a person.

She was referring to the law authorizing the dispatch of MSDF vessels to the Indian Ocean to help NATO-led antiterrorism operations in and near Afghanistan.

Whether to extend the law beyond the Nov. 1 expiration is a hot political topic as Abe's archrival, Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa, opposes its extension.