What an Aso: Japanese minister says he's full of crap

Following up on our story from yesterday, Japanese foreign minister Taro Aso has backed away from his account of the suicide of a Japanese official at the consulate in Shanghai in 2004. Over the weekend Aso said the official was baited by a "sexy woman" and then blackmailed by Chinese operatives looking for dirt on Japan. Rather than betray his country, the man fell on his proverbial sword. Um, yeah. Now, Aso says that account was simply "hypothetical":

"I was just offering it as an example" he said on Monday. "It did not have any meaning beyond that."

Interesting. Because Aso seemed pretty sure of his story on Saturday:

"They approached him, offering to arrange a sexy woman for him," Aso said on Saturday.

"Then he was blackmailed to give away secret codes for classified information. It is clear from a suicide note he left."

Shanghaiist is in the process of writing a treatment for a new soap opera. It's about Chinese-Japanese political relations. Should be a good one!

Also on Shanghaiist:
Watch out for those ‘sexy women’