Kishida dismisses the head of the Ministry of Reconstruction over a financing scandal
Ministers Daishiro Yamagiwa, Yasuhiro Hanashi, Minoru Terada also previously left office
Dec. 27 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida, has presented on Tuesday the dismissal and effective removal of the Minister of Reconstruction, Kenya Akiba, who has been involved in a scandal over financing, thus becoming the fourth member of the cabinet to leave his position. posted in the last two months.
The opposition parties and the ruling party itself, the Liberal Democratic Party, have made several calls to materialize his resignation, especially at the gates of the next ordinary parliamentary session at the end of January, according to the Japanese news agency Kyodo.
The prime minister has appointed Hiromichi Watanabe, who was already Prime Minister of Reconstruction between 2018 and 2019, as Akiba’s successor.
According to the media ‘The Japan Times’, Akiba has admitted that two political groups affiliated with him paid 14 million yen (98,562 euros) to his mother and wife under the concept of “rent” between 2011 and 2020. In addition, The minister would also have paid 200,000 yen (1,412 in euros) to his secretaries, financed by the State, to work on his candidacy for re-election to the Lower House in October 2021, something that would violate electoral law.
As stated by the cited agency, Akiba’s immediate dismissal is due to the government’s desire to avoid obstacles to discussions on next year’s fiscal budget and other party bills in the next parliamentary session.
Previously, three other ministers have left their post in the last two months. The first, the head of the Economy, Daishiro Yamagiwa, for alleged relations with the controversial Unification Church; then the head of Justice, Yasuhiro Hanashi, after a stir due to frivolous comments about his functions; and the Minister of the Interior and Communications, Minoru Terada, also embroiled in a financing scandal.
