Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka tops a list ranking the personal assets of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his 17 Cabinet ministers, measured when the Cabinet was established April 26.
According to a government report released Tuesday, Tanaka, 57, of the Liberal Democratic Party, declared 749 million yen, and party colleague Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa, 79, followed with 566 million yen.
All five women in Koizumi's Cabinet rank within the top six on the list, while Koizumi, 59, LDP president, ranks 13th with 50 million yen. The average amount of assets stood at 145 million yen.
Assets covered include land, buildings, savings accounts, vehicles and stocks, including those of their spouses and dependents.
Tanaka's assets include 334 million yen of those of her husband, Naoki, an Upper House member currently serving as senior vice minister of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry.
The average amount of assets declared by Cabinet ministers falls 84 million yen short of that of former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's Cabinet, inaugurated in April last year, and 121 million yen short of that of late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's Cabinet, inaugurated in July 1998.
Atsuko Toyama, minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology, 62, ranks third with 241 million yen, and the 68-year-old New Conservative Party leader Chikage Ogi, minister of land, infrastructure and transport, follows with 196 million yen, according to the list.
Environment chief Yoriko Kawaguchi, 60, ranks fifth with 136 million yen and Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama, 73, of the LDP, sixth with 126 million yen. Defense chief Gen Nakatani, 43, of the LDP, had the least amount of assets, with 16 million yen.
Koizumi's primary assets included land and a building in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, time savings worth 6.5 million yen and government bonds worth 13 million yen.
The report also covers the Cabinet's 25 senior vice ministers -- with average assets of 121 million yen -- and 26 parliamentary secretaries, with an average 108 million yen.
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