TOKYO — Japan’s trade minister said he was ashamed to find out that an aide spent political funds in a bondage bar in the latest scandal to hit Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet after two resignations earlier in the week.
Yoichi Miyazawa, who has been in the role for just two days, said Thursday a staff member claimed expenses for a visit to the Hiroshima bar. Miyazawa, who is charged with overseeing nuclear restarts, also said he held 600 shares in Tokyo Electric Power Company Co., which operated the Fukushima plants at the center of the 2011 disaster.
Miyazawa replaced Yuko Obuchi as minister on Oct. 21 after she resigned along with another female cabinet member over alleged breaches of electoral funding laws. The revelation Thursday could prove damaging to Abe, whose first 2006-2007 stint as premier ended after a series of scandals in his cabinet led to four resignations and a suicide.
The scandal could cause Abe’s relatively stable approval ratings to dip ahead of a decision later this year on an unpopular sales tax increase, according to a political analyst.