(AP)
Updated: 2007-09-03 09:57

TOKYO - Japan's new agriculture minister resigned only a week after his appointment because of a scandal involving misuse of farm subsidies, the third Cabinet minister to step down in four months, a report said Monday.

Japan's farm minister Takehiko Endo, seen here on 01 September 2007, resigned Monday over a money scandal, a week after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe re-shuffled his cabinet in a bid to clean up the government's image. [AFP/file]

Public broadcaster NHK said Agriculture Minister Takehiko Endo submitted a resignation to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe early Monday and that Abe accepted it, without saying where it got the information.

Endo, who took office August 27, admitted on Saturday that a farm cooperative he headed had received government subsidies by exaggerating weather damage to the 1999 grape harvest.

The latest scandal was a fresh blow to Abe's shaky government as the prime minister struggles to regain public support. Abe reshuffled his Cabinet last week following a defeat for the ruling coalition in elections for the upper house of parliament.

An official at the prime minister's office said Endo met briefly with Abe early Monday but could not confirm if Endo submitted a resignation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing protocol.

The minister was expected to give a news conference later to explain his decision to quit, according to Kyodo News agency.

Kyodo said that another high-ranking bureaucrat, Vice Foreign Minister Yukiko Sakamoto, also stepped down Monday after acknowledging that her support group faked funding reports in 2004-2005.

The new scandals hit Abe's government just as it was recovering from July 29 elections in which the opposition took control of the upper house of parliament. Support for Abe had jumped some 10 percentage points following the naming of a new Cabinet last Monday.

Abe, at 52 Japan's youngest postwar prime minister, has been dogged by money scandals since taking office nearly a year ago.

His first agriculture minister, Toshikatsu Matsuoka, killed himself in May amid allegations he misused public money. His successor, Norihiko Akagi, resigned in August in a separate scandal. Two other ministers have also had to quit Abe's Cabinet.

While Abe had initially stood by his ministers in previous scandals, he apparently has decided it wiser to force disgraced Cabinet members to quit. After forming his new Cabinet on Monday, he announced that anyone caught in accounting scandals would have to step down.

The allegations against Endo were particularly damaging. He admitted on Saturday that his farm cooperative had recieved 1.15 million yen (US$9,930; euro7,250) in government subsidies by exaggerating crop damage due to weather.

Endo initially apologized and quit as cooperative head, but said he would not resign from the Cabinet. But he reportedly changed his mind after a series of meetings Sunday among LDP heavyweights and Chief Cabinet Secretary Kaoru Yosano, who Kyodo said pressed Endo to quit.

The report of Endo's decision came as emboldened opposition lawmakers threatened to take legislative action unless he stepped down.

Two other money scandals emerged Saturday, both involving lawmakers from Abe's party.

Sakamoto acknowledged her support group had misused receipts in compiling expenses. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Mitsuhide Iwaki said he mistakenly reported fundraising ticket sales as political donations.