Troubles deepen for PM

The shocking death of Toshikatu Matsuoka was the hardest blow yet for Abe, who has suffered sliding public confidence due to scandals and gaffes affecting his cabinet ministers and government agencies.

Dressed in black, hundreds of local residents and Matsuoka's political associates walked into a Buddhist temple in his home town in southern Japan for the private ceremony, television footage showed.

Entering the temple in Kumamoto prefecture, the mourners stopped at desks set up under tents to sign their names in condolence books.

First Lady Akie Abe read a statement by Abe, who was unable to attend the funeral because he had to appear at a legislative session for a debate with the opposition.

"Minister Matsuoka's death was so sudden and he was too young. The minister gave dreams and hopes to the young people who carry out Japan's farming," Akie Abe said.

Matsuoka's widow Hatsumi wept and thanked the First Lady and other visitors.

"After receiving the prime minister's condolences, he must now be standing still and bowing his head on his journey in the world of the departed souls," she said, invoking Japanese images of a peaceful afterlife.

"As a bereaved family, we will live proud that he fulfilled his duty as a farm minister," she said.

Matsuoka, 62, known as a fervent lobbyist for farmers in his district, hanged himself Monday as he was set to face questioning in parliament over a bid-rigging scandal.

The scandal, and a separate row over massive blundering of pension payments, have taken a heavy toll on Abe, whose poll numbers have dropped sharply less than two months ahead of national elections.

The Social Insurance Agency has said it cannot identify some 50 million payment records on its keep, some of which may be for dead people, and has lost other payment accounts.

Opposition parties have presented testimony from senior citizens who paid pension premiums for decades but were denied benefits because welfare officials lost their records.

Abe and main opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa started their debate with brief remarks about Matsuoka before a heated exchange over pensions.

"I wish he felt the courage to explain things to the public," Ozawa said of Matsuoka and the scandal the opposition had grilled him over. "We hope that his soul rests in peace."

Ozawa asked Abe to take responsibility for the pension payment row.

Abe said the problems developed before he was in power but promised to set the issue straight within a year and set up an expert panel to examine pension accounts.

Abe also promised to do away with a five-year statute of limitations that had prevented some elderly people from claiming unpaid benefits.

"We have a responsibility to ease the concerns of the Japanese people," Abe told Ozawa in the 45-minute televised debate. "People must receive the benefits they are entitled to."

The ruling bloc immediately passed a bill on reforming pensions in committee. The opposition argued that more debate was needed and briefly scuffled in committee with ruling coalition lawmakers.

The full lower house, where Abe enjoys a strong majority, is expected to approve the bill on Thursday.

"Pensions are the basic foundation of livelihood. We must not politicize the issue," said chief government spokesman Yasuhisa Shiozaki, urging "non-partisan efforts."

Recent polls have shown that the public regarded pension reform as the top political priority, ahead of Abe's signature issue of rewriting the post-World War II pacifist constitution.