Daishiro Yamagiwa, Yasuhiro Hanashi, Minoru Terada — and now Kenya Akiba.
Reconstruction minister Akiba became the fourth minister in about two months to be forced to resign from Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s administration on Tuesday, following a political funds scandal.
Kishida wanted to nip the issue in the bud before the next parliamentary session convenes in January, with opposition parties' questioning over the scandal likely to have delayed the passage of the budget for the fiscal year from April had Akiba stayed on.