Abe under fire after resignation of scandal-hit minister

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The resignation of Akira Amari from his post as Japan's economy minister has delivered a hammer blow to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP) with its leader and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe calling for the government to unify and forge ahead with key deliberations in parliament.

"We cannot afford to let Diet deliberations stall at any moment," the prime minister told a cabinet meeting with reference to Amari stepping down for his involvement in a funding scandal.

Amari, who also doubled up as economic revitalization minister in charge of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), has been a key ally of Abe's and the architect behind the prime minister's "Abenomics" installments of aggressive economic policy reforms.

Abe said that talks on the state budget for fiscal 2016, as well as other pressing bills, could not be delayed any longer due to the scandal involving Amari.

Deliberations of such bills have been delayed in parliament due to opposition parties criticizing both Amari and Abe, believing that they both need to fully explain their respective responsibilities over the latest scandal issue plaguing the ruling LDP.

The opposition camp wants investigations into Amari to continue as well as Abe to account for him selecting Amari to his respective posts in the first place, and for backing him to stay in his post prior to his stepping down on Thursday, following his admission of culpability.

The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) Secretary General Yukio Edano has insisted Amari and his former aides also implicated in the scandal be summoned to parliament to be grilled about their improprieties.

DPJ Diet affairs chief Yoshiaki Takaki, for his part, also said that Nobuteru Ishihara, Amari's successor, should redeliver a speech on economic policy delivered originally by Amari at the plenary sessions of both chambers of parliament in late January.

Amari is the latest and most high-profile minister forced to quit Abe's cabinet following funding scandals, with the admission he accepted illicit funds from a construction company doing little to garner public faith ahead of key upper house elections this summer, the outcome of which may see a public referendum on constitutional reform.

Amari, who brokered Japan's involvement in the recently agreed TPP, said he'd caused the government a great deal of embarrassment and that improprieties related to him shouldn't hamper the economic progress of the country.

The veteran lawmaker on Thursday told a televised news conference that he intended to leave Abe's cabinet.

An article appeared in the Shukan Bunshun weekly magazine recently that alleged Amari and his staff received cash and were entertained over the past three years with the money involved totaling some 12 million yen (about 101,000 U.S. dollars).

The article quoted an official from a construction company in Chiba Prefecture about the allegations, with the official stating that Amari accepted cash and was treated to nights out in return for giving the firm preferential treatment and special "favors."

The construction company, for example, had asked for Amari's help in dealing with compensation issues pertaining to a road project involving the government-backed Urban Renaissance Agency.

The allegations, in part, are that Amari last November received an envelop containing 500,000 yen in cash in return for favors and following a probe there were no details of the payments in Amari's political funding record, in breach of political funds laws in Japan.

Amari said he didn't remember receiving cash from the company on two occasions and stated that it would have been odd to receive an envelope of cash and put it straight in his jacket pocket, but later conceded that he did in fact receive funds but that one of his aide's mishandled them, as they were not reported in his political funds records.

He claimed he instructed his secretary to handle the money correctly, but his secretary failed to appropriately log around 5 million yen (about 42,000 U.S. dollars) of cash given to him.

A follow up article also claimed that Amari in fact directly pocketed cash himself on more than two occasions, to the tune of tens of millions of yen.

The scandal has been an untimely headache for Abe, who, since retaking office in December 2012, lost three of his ministers following similar high-profile funding scandals.

Despite the hefty setback to the ruling camp and to Abe's objectives personally, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, the government's top spokesperson, said Friday that the prime minister's cabinet "continues to attach the highest priority to the economy," and that it will "promote the revitalization of the world's third-largest economy."

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