Japan's ex-finance minister Nakagawa found dead

Sunday, … .Sat Oct 3, 9:45 pm ET

TOKYO (AFP) – Japan's former finance minister Shoichi Nakagawa, who was forced to resign over his apparently drunken behaviour at a meeting of world powers, has been found dead at his home, police and news reports said Sunday.

"We were informed that former finance minister Nakagawa has been found dead, but we are still unaware of further details," said a spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.

Nakagawa, 56, was found dead in a bedroom at his home in Tokyo's residential distrct of Setagaya, Jiji Press news agency and other media said, adding that the cause of death was not immediately unknown.

Nakagawa, a close ally of then prime minister Taro Aso, was incoherent and slurred his speech at a news conference in February after the Group of Seven talks in Rome amid the global economic crisis.

Nakagawa said he had sipped some wine with lunch before the press conference but blamed jet lag and cold medicine for his drowsiness.

The debacle dealt a blow to Aso, who resigned last month after his conservative party suffered a massive defeat against Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan in general elections in August.