Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa resigned Friday over scandals involving rightist connections and an extramarital affair, dealing a fresh political blow to embattled Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's administration.
Mori appointed Yasuo Fukuda, 64, a Lower House member and former parliamentary vice minister for foreign affairs, as Nakagawa's successor. Fukuda, elected from the Gunma No. 4 constituency, is the son of the late Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda and a member of Mori's faction in the Liberal Democratic Party.
Mori also appointed Taichi Sakaiya, head of the Economic Planning Agency, to concurrently serve as a state minister in charge of information technology, a post held by Nakagawa.