TOKYO —
Japan’s internal affairs minister resigned Sunday over a series of campaign
finance scandals, becoming the third member of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s
cabinet to step down in less than a month.
اضافة اعلان
Minoru Terada
quit over allegations of mismanagement of political funds. He had acknowledged
to parliament that his local campaign group had even listed a dead person as
its treasurer in annual financial statements.
Other accusations
published by the weekly Shukan Bunshun magazine included illegal payments to
staff during his reelection campaign last year.
“I just tendered
(my) re-signation to the prime minister,” Terada told a hastily arranged news
conference on Sunday night.
“I felt my
problems over political funds must not become a hindrance” to parliament, he
said.
Terada’s exit
came on the final day of Kishida’s diplomatic tour to Thailand for an
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, and ahead of budget deliberations in
parliament.
The string of
cabinet departures has been dubbed by Japanese media as “resignation dominoes”
and will pile further pressure on Kishida.
The approval
rating for Kishida’s government is barely more than 30 percent, its lowest
level since he took office last year, according to the latest NHK poll.
He said Terada’s
successor would be named on Monday.
Kishida said on
Saturday he expected Terada, whose ministry covers everything from election
management to telecommunications, to “thoroughly fulfil his responsibility to
explain himself”.
Terada had
previously resisted calls for his resignation, regretting what he called
“clerical mistakes”.
Terada’s exit
came just over a week after justice minister Yasuhiro Hanashi resigned.
Hanashi stepped
down after reportedly describing his job to fellow lawmakers as a “low-profile”
role that only made headlines when he approved the execution of death row
inmates.
Economic
revitalization minister Daishiro Yamagiwa left office in late October under
fire over reported ties to the Unification Church.
The church and
its longstanding links to politicians have been under renewed scrutiny since
the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe in July.
The man accused
of killing Abe reportedly resented the organization over donations his mother
made that bankrupted the family.
Revelations of
close links between many politicians and the church have also hurt the
government’s approval ratings.
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