Agriculture minister Kazuo Yana’s future hung in the balance Wednesday as he faced growing pressure to account for why his supporters were provided with free shuttle buses at a January event, a possible violation of an election campaign law. The revelations about the free bus services emerged following criticism of Yana over remarks he made to supporters in May about cutting the road budgets of two towns whose mayors did not support him. Yana has apologized for his remarks about the road budget cuts and retracted them.
But the growing scandal has turned into a political crisis for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government that could disrupt parliamentary debate on key bills it wants passed before the current session ends on Dec. 12.
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