Japan's internal affairs minister Minoru Terada, a close aide to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, on Wednesday faced growing calls to resign as another political fund scandal involving him emerged.
The pressure has emerged less than a month after two ministers of the Kishida Cabinet were effectively sacked for gaffes and close ties with the controversial Unification Church.
The online edition of the Shukan Bunshun weekly magazine earlier Wednesday said that Terada "falsely reported" to a local government that he covered a part of the gasoline and other expenses related to the lower house election last year, worth around 1 million yen ($7,000), which was actually paid by one of his support groups.
The magazine article said Terada's report on his election campaign expenses violated the public offices election law, citing a legal expert.
In a parliamentary session, Terada, who belongs to an intraparty group led by Kishida within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, argued that he did nothing illegal, rejecting calls to give up the post he obtained in August.
But opposition parties stepped up their criticism of Terada, arguing he should step down since the internal affairs and communications minister supervises laws that deal with political fund and election issues.
Keiji Kokuta, Diet affairs chief of the Japanese Communist Party, criticized Terada and urged Kishida, who is on a trip to Southeast Asia for international meetings, to replace the minister.
Terada, a former Finance Ministry bureaucrat, has been embroiled in a series of political funds scandals reported by the magazine.
Among them, he has acknowledged that his support group submitted to the prefectural government of Hiroshima, where his constituency is located, annual political funding documents for 2019 and 2020 that were signed off by a person who died in October 2019.
The political funds control law stipulates that when a person who signed off on a document dies, a support group has to report the death to a local government within seven days.
Terada's scandals have become a headache for Kishida, whose Cabinet's approval ratings have been plunging due partly to ties between LDP lawmakers and the Unification Church.
Daishiro Yamagiwa stepped down as economic revitalization minister late last month over his close ties with the controversial religious group and former Justice Minister Yasuhiro Hanashi followed suit last week for remarks widely seen as making light of his role in authorizing executions of death-row inmates.
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