Two ministers, who took office in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet reshuffle last week, acknowledged Wednesday errors in their asset disclosure reports, but Abe downplayed the incident, in an attempt to ward off more resignations.
Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita admitted that he had failed to report outstanding loans to his own political fund management organization, followed by similar errors reported the same day by Yoko Kamikawa, minister in charge of declining population.
Kamoshita also said his fund management body reported erroneous sums about the loans and apologized, saying he would correct all the reports.
Following Monday's resignations by Takehiko Endo as farm minister and Yukiko Sakamoto as parliamentary foreign secretary over "money and politics" scandals, coupled with Tuesday's resignation by Abe's party colleague Yutaka Kobayashi as parliamentarian over an alleged election violation, a sense of crisis on the fate of the administration is spreading within the ruling coalition.
The string of problems prompted main opposition Democratic Party of Japan policy chief Masayuki Naoshima to call for Abe's resignation and his cabinet to resign en masse.
But when asked by reporters if Kamoshita should leave the cabinet over the issue, Abe said, "That would not be the case if it is an error in recording."
Admitting that his political funds administration was sloppy in the past, Kamoshita, 58, said, "I apologize for the mistakes and will immediately correct them," but he did not show any intention of stepping down. "I would like to continue working as environment minister," he added.
According to Kamoshita, he extended a 2 million yen loan to his fund management organization in 1996, 10 million yen in 1997 and 3 million yen in 1998, but he failed to report them in his asset disclosure reports.
As none of the loans has been repaid, the organization should also have reported for these loans an outstanding debt of 12 million yen in 1997 and 15 million yen in 1998. However, its annual political funds reports said the amount of borrowed money stood at 2 million yen in 1996, 10 million yen in 1997 and has totaled 23 million yen since 1998.
The errors came to light as the organization's 2003-2005 political funds reports submitted to the authorities showed it borrowed 10 million yen from Kamoshita on Aug 10, 1996, while its 1996 report says it borrowed only 2 million yen from him.
Asked if the 8 million yen in difference was not a murky expenditure that he wants to remain unaccounted for, Kamoshita denied the possibility, saying he is confident the sum he extended in 1996 was 2 million yen based on consistency with cash flows described in the report.
First elected to the House of Representatives in 1993, he said he was at the time using his own money earned as a medical doctor to make up for political fund shortages due to a lack of political donations.
"I should have separated the accounting more strictly, and I regret that," he told reporters.
Also attributing the faults to changes in his accountant each year, Kamoshita said in a statement, "I myself will check the reports from now on and be careful not to repeat such mistakes."
Later on Wednesday, Kamikawa filed corrections for three of her asset disclosure reports, saying she had failed to report 9.68 million yen in loans to her funds management organization in the December 2000 report, 11.18 million yen in April 2004 and 7.98 million yen in February 2006.
Her office attributed the faults to internal miscommunications.
Commenting on Kamoshita's case, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kaoru Yosano said in his press conference, "It is absolutely not the fact that he made mistakes intentionally or presented erroneous figures in order to intentionally cover up something," while urging lawmakers to "strive to reduce" such errors.
Kamoshita, a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party serving his fifth term in the lower chamber, was appointed environment minister in the Aug 27 cabinet reshuffle, by which Abe attempted to reinvigorate his embattled administration.
Abe made it clear at the inauguration of the new cabinet that any minister who is unable to explain himself fully in the case of a scandal will have to resign.
Endo resigned Monday as agriculture, forestry and fisheries minister only a week after taking office, after a farmers' mutual aid organization he was heading was found to have improperly received state subsidies by padding the number of members.
Sakamoto stepped down from her post Monday after reports from a campaign office in Shizuoka that showed she had inflated political expenditures, and former farm minister Tokuichiro Tamazawa left the LDP the same day, also over accounting irregularities concerning political funds reports.
On Tuesday, Kobayashi resigned as a House of Councillors member to take responsibility for the indictment of his staff over an alleged election violation in the campaigning for the July 29 upper house election.
Concerns that Abe may be forced to call a snap House of Representatives election later this year have begun to spread in the LDP with Kobayashi's resignation, but Wednesday's development prompted worries that are being voiced open even within the cabinet.
"If problems continue to surface one after another, the handling of the government will become extremely difficult," Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe said.
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