Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Resigns Amid Reshuffle

TOKYO (Sputnik) - Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno on Thursday announced his resignation against the background of an ongoing kickback scandal.

"There are different opinions about the funds of political parties now. The people's trust in politics is decreasing because of it. There are different references to my own reporting of political funds as well. To ensure that there are no delays in national politics, today I submitted a letter to Prime Minister [Fumio] Kishida asking him to relieve me of my post as the chief cabinet secretary," Matsuno told a news conference.

Japanese news agency cited government sources as saying that Matsuno would be replaced by former Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi.

Earlier in the day, Kyodo reported that Kishida replaced Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ichiro Miyashita and Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Junji Suzuki.

Ex-Japanese Justice Minister Ken Saito will be named the next economy minister, while former Minister of Loneliness Tetsushi Sakamoto will be appointed the next agriculture minister, and Takeaki Matsumoto will be reinstated as the internal affairs minister, the report said.

The scandal around underreported funds of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), broke out last week. Five factions of the ruling party allegedly received the money at various fundraising events. To prevent bribery, Japanese law demands that the names of donors and the amounts of the raised money be written in a reporting book if the funds collected at one event exceed 200,000 yen ($1,300). However, the ruling party allegedly did not reflect all the collected funds either in the income of the politicians or in its reporting book.

Matsuno, as well as Nishimura and almost the entire leadership of the LDP, are suspected of receiving over 10 million yen over the past 5 years in the form of kickbacks from party funds.

Earlier on Wednesday, Japan's opposition Constitutional Democratic Party submitted to the country's parliament a motion of no confidence in Kishida's government, but the lower house of the Japanese parliament rejected the motion.

The alleged concealment of funds is currently being investigated by a special department of the Tokyo Prosecutor's Office. After the end of the parliamentary session on December 13, Kishida is expected to reshuffle the government and the ruling party's leadership.

According to a new poll, public approval of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's cabinet fell to 17.1% in December, the worst since the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) returned to power in December 2012.