The Democratic Party of Japan-led administration finds itself again on the brink, following Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara's resignation Sunday for taking illegal donations from a foreign resident who has a Japanese name.
Experts say Maehara was a casualty of a law that sets an unreasonably high demand and suggest other lawmakers may also be treading on thin ice without even knowing it.
"To check every donation from every individual and the background of each is difficult," Kobe Gakuin University professor Hiroshi Kamiwaki told The Japan Times. The expert on political finances added that it becomes much trickier in cases where non-Japanese residing in Japan with Japanese names are making contributions.