Although Thursday's surprise resignation of economy minister Akira Amari appears to be a move carefully calculated to minimize damage to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration, serious damage has indeed been done, experts said Friday.
The scandal is bound to throw a monkey wrench into the government's efforts to revive the economy and maintain public support, they said.
Amari, one of the architects of the prime minister's deflation-busting "Abenomics" strategy, also spearheaded last year's successful bid to hammer out the multinational Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement.