Eto Apologizes to LDP Members in His Home Prefecture, Steps Down as Chair of Party’s Miyazaki Pref. Chapter

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:27 JST, May 25, 2025

MIYAZAKI — Taku Eto, who was dismissed from his position as agriculture minister after making a gaffe about rice, returned to his home prefecture of Miyazaki on Saturday for the first time since the dismissal. There he attended a meeting of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Miyazaki prefectural chapter, and apologized to party members for his gaffe.

Eto was sacked on Wednesday after he said “I have never bought rice” at an LDP meeting in Saga. At the beginning of Saturday’s meeting, Eto said: “I would like to offer my sincere apologies. I resigned as agriculture, fisheries and forestry minister because I reflected on my remarks, which were not in line with the feelings of the people and were extremely disrespectful to producers.”

He bowed and added, “With the party already in a very difficult situation, I have added to the difficulty,” referring to the headwinds facing the party in this summer’s House of Councillors election.

Eto resigned as chair of the prefectural chapter on Saturday. Former Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa will lead the upper house election as acting chair.