TOKYO: Japan’s internal affairs minister resigned on 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.

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) resignation 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 (APEC) 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.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2022