Photo/Illutration Justice Minister Katsuyuki Kawai answers questions from reporters after he tendered a resignation letter to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Oct. 31. (Takeshi Iwashita)

Back in November 2010, while Minoru Yanagida was justice minister in the administration of Prime Minister Naoto Kan of the Democratic Party of Japan, he blurted out that all he had to do to stay in his post was to field all questions in the Diet with two statements: "I refrain from commenting on specific issues" and "I am taking appropriate action in accordance with the law and evidence."

His gaffe did not go unchallenged.

Katsuyuki Kawai, a legislator of the then-opposition Liberal Democratic Party, took Yanagida to task in the Lower House Judicial Affairs Committee on Nov. 16, accusing him in a severe manner of disgracing the office he held.

Yanagida was forced into resignation six days later.

But in a karmic twist of fate nine years later, it was Kawai who was forced to resign as justice minister on Oct. 31.

The latest issue of the weekly Shukan Bunshun magazine, which went on sale that morning, alleged that Kawai's wife, who was elected to the Upper House for the first time this past summer, paid her campaign staffers remunerations far exceeding the legal limit set by the Public Offices Election Law.

I have here a commentary contributed to The Asahi Shimbun by Kawai in 1990, the year before he was elected to the Hiroshima Prefectural Assembly as a rookie politician.

Lamenting the sorry state of Japanese politics back then and calling for reform, Kawai, then 26, wrote: "The extremely constricting nature of the Public Offices Election Law is keeping voters and politicians far apart."

Now a seasoned Lower House legislator serving his seventh term, perhaps his youthful idealism is all but gone.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe noted of Kawai's resignation: "I was the one who appointed him to the Cabinet post. I am sorely aware of my responsibility."

Admitting his "responsibility for the appointment," the somber-faced Abe hastened away from reporters.

Back in the late 1980s, then-Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita frequently made this admission toward the end of his administration, after his Cabinet ministers resigned one after another. But when it came to "taking responsibility" with tangible action, Takeshita did nothing.

This is precisely how Abe operates, too. Since the start of his current administration in 2012, 10 Cabinet ministers have resigned, and Abe has spoken of his "responsibility" every time.

Does he use it as a magic word to get himself out of a jam in the short-term, or does he believe it is an "indulgence" in the Roman Catholic sense of the term?

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 1

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.