The speaker of the lower house of the Diet, Sakurauchi Yoshio, claimed that U.S. workers were “too lazy” to compete with Japan and that half of them were illiterate.
Prime Minister Miyazawa said that the U.S. “might lack a work ethic,” implying that the economic problems in the U.S. were fundamental to the country and its people, not the result of unfair Japanese trade or business practices.
The Diet passed a bill allowing Japanese “peacekeeping forces” overseas under UN control, the first time since World War II that Japanese troops might go abroad.
Kanemaru Shin, a leader of the LDP, resigned from the Diet under an immense cloud of corruption, subsequently substantiated. He was later brought to trial.
