JAPAN'S new trade minister has called his support group's spending at a racy bar "inappropriate" but declined to sell shares in Tokyo Electric Power, the operator of the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant his ministry supervises.
The revelations about the trade minister come as a blow for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after his cabinet suffered two high-profile resignations this week over separate funding scandals.
Yoichi Miyazawa, a veteran politician and nephew of a former prime minister, was picked to head the trade ministry on Tuesday after the resignation of his predecessor, Yuko Obuchi, over allegations her support groups misused political funds.
Justice Minister Midori Matsushima resigned the same day over unrelated allegations of election-law irregularities.
Mr Abe's administration has been pushing to restart nuclear plants more than three years after the devastating Fukushima disaster and, as the head of the powerful trade and industry ministry, Mr Miyazawa will be in charge of key decisions on energy policy and the reopening of idled reactors across Japan.
Mr Miyazawa, 64, said he learned from news reports of the £100 his support group spent at the sadomasochism-themed bar in his political district of Hiroshima.
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