The Dec. 8 resignation of special Cabinet adviser Koya Nishikawa after it was revealed he participated in a boating trip funded by a Hiroshima egg farm now at the center of a bribery scandal was not just a blow to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
Until he lost his Diet seat in 2017, Nishikawa had been a member of a faction of the Liberal Democratic Party led by Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai.
Another Nikai faction member, Takamori Yoshikawa, is also involved in the scandal.