Top finance official denies sexual harassment; vows to sue publisher

He is well known for this behaviour that's why it was recorded. He denies it but the recording would prove otherwise. Aso can't say much as he is hardly a morally based man himself.

Did he say it was not true before he knew there was a recording? Otherwise he is a real fool. I think these gossip rags are very prudent about what they publish. They must have something fairly substantive to publish this story.

Who does this guy think he is, Trump? He can't say, "I have never had the kind of exchange that I can be heard doing in the audio file!" and seriously believe it'll fly. I hope he also understands that he is going to be bringing this to the public all the more with the lawsuit, and that when he loses things will be FAR worse for him. He may wish to "keep on working with greater urgency", but I have a feeling that the more publicity this gets the sooner he'll be asked to step down. He probably just should have stuck with the "I was drunk and don't remember" defense that always works here. This guy is scum, and I'm glad the woman and the tabloid have come out with it -- I only hope he pays for it and more women start coming forward. No one should put up with the crap they do here, and I KNOW they do it because I have witnessed it time and again.

I wonder if he will try to claim entrapment. He will say, she accepted the invitation only to record him and then when he drank too much and said something foolish she was already recording him, that is why it was caught on tape.

His response proves he is guilty. Now what may happen is other women come forward that he has also soft raped before. The LDP knows he is a hoser anyway, they must have to decide if he is worth fighting for when there are so many other fires of their own making to extinguish. The LDP, like the republican party in the USA, is corrupt to the core. The fixer Cohen paid $1.6 million to cover up an abortion of a playboy model jacked up by a top republican contributor. And the top republican fund raiser quit this job after paying off employees he raped was published. It just goes on and on with both the LDP and Republicans.

If it was recorded it is true, if not recorded he can just say he couldn’t remember. Creepy that people record you when you are drunk though.

This guy is going to be thrown under the bus: everyone has had enough of the behaviour of finance ministry officials. I suggest these ministries start recruiting their staff from somewhere other than "elite" universities, as the current shower are hopeless.

went drinking with a female reporter recently at a bar near his house 

This is some interesting context that I was not initially aware of.

Technically it would still be sexual harassment, but at least he wasn’t exactly ‘on the job’

i imagine he’ll attempt to deny by claiming the ‘can I touch your breasts’ comments were made by the drunk guy sitting over his shoulder...

Beside weekly gossip magazine, there is opinion magazine Shincho that Japanese intellectuals read. Asou and Abe are in more trouble if they don't fire him.