Justice Minister Minoru Yanagida resigned Monday amid the fallout over his joking about his Diet duties, and after Prime Minister Naoto Kan effectively pressured him to step down.
Yanagida's exit, the first from Kan's second Cabinet, which was formed in September, will hobble the Democratic Party of Japan-led administration's attempts to get the opposition camp to negotiate on the supplemental budget.
The resignation came at a time when Kan's public support ratings have plunged in part from the diplomatic fallout stemming from September's run-in between a Chinese trawler and Japan Coast Guard cutters near the Senkaku Islands, and the leaking of video footage from the incident to YouTube.