Bangkok: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida suggested at a press conference in Bangkok on Saturday that he is considering replacing internal affairs minister Minoru Terada, who is embroiled in a political funds scandal.

“I want to make a decision as prime minister after considering what would be the best way (for the administration) to focus on performing difficult tasks one by one,” Kishida said.

Kishida is expected to decide whether to change the minister as early as Sunday, ahead of the start on Monday of parliamentary deliberations on the government’s second supplementary budget for fiscal 2022.

The government and ruling parties hope to avoid Terada’s scandal affecting the parliamentary deliberations.

Opposition parties are urging the scandal-hit minister to resign, and even some in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party are calling for his early resignation.

Kishida is “expected to dismiss Terada after talking with him,” a senior LDP member said Saturday.

After attending a series of international meetings during his Southeast Asia trip, Kishida left Thailand on Saturday afternoon to return home.

At the press conference, Kishida mentioned accountability that his cabinet’s members must fulfill, as well as his administration’s stance of placing priority on implementing policies.

“I’ll be making decisions from these two perspectives,” the prime minister said.

Kishida has already replaced two ministers–then economic revitalization minister Daishiro Yamagiwa and Justice Minister Yasuhiro Hanashi, after telling the Diet that they had to fulfill accountability.

The prime minister also told the press conference that over the next two months his government will put all its energy to address such challenges as establishing a law to relieve victims of questionable practices by the controversial religious group known as the Unification Church and drastically strengthening Japan’s defense capabilities.

The prime minister indicated that the government will submit a Unification Church victim relief bill to the Diet as soon as possible. “The government will make utmost efforts” to have the bill enacted during the ongoing parliamentary session, he said.

JIJI Press