Defense Minister Tomomi Inada faced a barrage of criticism and questions Wednesday over her relationship with scandal-tainted Moritomo Gakuen, as a war of words erupted between her and the wife of a principal who heads the controversial school operator.
Pressure on Inada to step down continued to come from the four main opposition parties.
But some members of the ruling coalition, which has publicly backed the ally of Prime Minster Shinzo Abe and rejected calls for her to resign, are worried that her credibility within the Defense Ministry and with important overseas allies like the United States, as well as the ruling coalition's own popularity, could suffer.