In another blow for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government, Justice Minister Yasuhiro Hanashi was forced to apologize Thursday for remarks widely interpreted as making light of his responsibility to authorize executions of death row inmates and suggesting that his post has few political advantages.
Hanashi’s gaffes came as yet another Cabinet minister faces intensifying scrutiny. Internal affairs minister Minoru Terada is already involved in several scandals. He was grilled Tuesday and Wednesday by the opposition parties over a 2011 political funds report in which a support group received a ¥6 million loan from Terada. The loan was not mentioned in political funds reports submitted during the following years.
These scandals come less than three weeks after economic revitalization minister Daishiro Yamagiwa resigned over his links to the controversial Unification Church.