Ministers may split cost of new washing machine for Yamanaka: Tanaka
Baku, October 17 (AZERTAC). Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka has been awash with admiration, receiving offers of financial support for his research on induced pluripotent stem cells, and now he may get an unlikely gift from members of the government.
Science and education minister Makiko Tanaka said Tuesday she has proposed that Cabinet ministers present Yamanaka with a new washing machine.
The offer comes after it was learned that Yamanaka, a 50-year-old professor at Kyoto University, was in the middle of repairing his washing machine when he got the phone call on Oct. 8 to tell him that he had won the 2012 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
Tanaka said a contribution of ¥5,000 to ¥10,000 each from the 19 Cabinet members would probably be enough to buy a new washer.
No one objected to her proposal, according to Tanaka.
Still, she noted, before making such an offer, the ministers need to check whether there are any legal issues involved.
Shinzo Abe, president of the Liberal Democratic Party, denied having any deep ties with a man linked to a yakuza syndicate.
The weekly magazine Shukan Post carried a 2008 photo of Abe and the individual in its latest edition, which went on sale Monday.
Abe said he met the man only once, when the picture was taken, and stressed he has not seen or had contact with him since.
The picture was taken when Abe was visited by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who was a candidate in the U.S. Republican presidential primary. The man in question is believed to be one of the five or six people who accompanied Huckabee, Abe explained.The magazine said the man is close to the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan`s largest underworld group, and was arrested in March for violating a law governing moneylenders.
The picture was taken in June 2008 at Abe`s office in a building for Lower House members, according to the magazine.
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