Japan Politicians Sue Over 'Viagra Cabinet' Story
1.22 p.m. ET (1822 GMT) March 12, 1999
Reuters
TOKYO — Two former Japanese cabinet ministers on Friday sued a magazine publisher for printing a story that said they took the anti-impotence drug Viagra.
Former chief cabinet secretaries Seiroku Kajiyama, 72, and Kanezo Muraoka, 67, sued Tokyo-based publisher Shinchosha Co and demanded an apology for a story that claimed the two used the drug.
"We have never used Viagra," the two politicians
said in a statement. They said that the story,
published in the February 4 edition of the Shukan
Shincho magazine, had given the false impression that
the two suffered from impotence.
Kajiyama and Muraoka both served in the cabinet of
Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, whose
administration ended last year.
The article also claimed senior politicians in the ruling
Liberal Democratic Party, to which the two
politicians belong, helped push Viagra on the fast track to government approval.
Japan's Health and Welfare Ministry announced in January it had approved Viagra for sale in Japan, only six months after a Japanese unit of the drug's U.S. maker Pfizer submitted its application.
The magazine's publishers said they stood by their article, which cited senior political reporters as saying that a grinning Kajiyama had spoken highly of the drug.
The article also quoted other political reporters who said the corridors of Japan's parliament were buzzing with tales of politicians using the drug.
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