Japan Ex-PM 'Chugged Down' Sake with Geithner, Cameron

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has told fellow lawmakers that nights of hard drinking with visiting dignitaries formed part of his diplomacy.

Noda, a well-known aficionado of "sake", said he "chugged" down cups of the rice wine with then-U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and separately with British premier David Cameron, the Yomiuri Shimbun said Thursday.

"When I was a finance minister, I chugged them down with Treasury Secretary Geithner. He loved 'Kamotsuru'," a sake from western Hiroshima prefecture, Noda said as lawmakers from his Democratic Party of Japan launched a group to promote Japanese drinks abroad.

"At the prime minister's official residence, I chugged them down with British Prime Minister Cameron," he told the gathering.

Noda, who led the nation in 2011-2012, was seen as a pragmatist who worked well with foreign leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, but sometimes struggled with his own ill-disciplined party.

He was voted out of office in December and replaced by his conservative rival Shinzo Abe.