In an unprecedented development Wednesday, Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka and Vice Foreign Minister Yoshiji Nogami were simultaneously dismissed for their failure to maintain an effective foreign policy team. This is the first time in the history of Japan's parliamentary Cabinet system that the foreign minister and the vice foreign minister have been simultaneously sacked during a Diet session. In this sense, it was a serious and dramatic event. But the reason for their dismissal was of such a shameful nature that it threatened to make them laughingstocks.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dismissed them after the debacle over the barring of two nongovernmental organizations from a recent international conference on Afghan reconstruction threatened to derail Diet debate over a crucial budget. The dispute exploded one week ago in the Diet when Mrs. Tanaka, Mr. Nogami and an LDP heavyweight, Mr. Muneo Suzuki, gave differing explanations over who was responsible for preventing the two Japanese NGOs from taking part in the conference in Tokyo.

In her parliamentary response, Mrs. Tanaka said that Mr. Nogami had told her the ministry barred the two NGOs, which had publicly criticized government policy on Afghanistan, under pressure from Mr. Suzuki, who once served as parliamentary foreign vice minister and has since kept influential ties with the Foreign Ministry. In subsequent testimony, Mr. Nogami contradicted the foreign minister by saying that Mr. Suzuki had not influenced the ministry's decision. Mr. Suzuki also denied any involvement, and in an apparent expression of his responsibility for his role in the fiasco, he offered to resign as chairman of the Lower House Steering Committee.