Reconstruction minister Kenya Akiba and Mio Sugita, parliamentary vice minister for internal affairs and communications, both resigned on Dec. 27, dealing another blow to the image of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

“I take grave responsibility for appointing them,” Kishida told reporters after accepting their resignation letters.

Opposition parties had long demanded the ouster of Akiba over shady political fund issues and his relation to the Unification Church. Sugita has long been a target of criticism for making comments that have offended ethnic and sexual minorities and victims of sexual assault.

But Kishida was initially reluctant to sack the two lawmakers of his Liberal Democratic Party. He finally effectively fired Akiba after several weeks of pressure from the opposition bloc.

Kishida plans to appoint Hiromichi Watanabe, a former reconstruction minister, as Akiba’s successor.

Akiba is the fourth member of the Cabinet ousted since October.

His resignation does remove a potential roadblock for Kishida in the ordinary 150-day Diet session that is expected to begin in January.

The opposition bloc could have delayed Diet proceedings by focusing on Kishida’s responsibility for appointing lawmakers with dubious track records to crucial posts.

The ruling coalition is looking for smooth passage of the fiscal 2023 initial budget during the Diet session.

Rumors spread on Dec. 26 that Akiba would finally vacate the Cabinet post.

Kishida said that day, “All I can say now is that I need to make full preparations for the coming Diet session.”

Sugita,55, was not named to a Cabinet post, but her appointment as a vice minister raised eyebrows.

She has a long history of uttering derogatory comments, including describing same-sex couples as “unproductive” and saying that women can easily lie about rape.

Kishida had told her to continue performing her job while providing a full explanation about her remarks.

After her resignation, Sugita repeated her assertion that her comments did not amount to discrimination against ethnic and sexual minorities.

Asked about her future activities, she said, “As there are many people who support me, I am going to continue to work hard as a voice representing them.”

Kishida said Sugita decided to step down to avoid disrupting administrative affairs, and also because she has no intention to retract some of her comments made based on her beliefs.

Akiba’s last work as reconstruction minister was to attend a meeting in Tokyo on the morning of Dec. 27 on rebuilding the Tohoku region from the devastation of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

After his resignation, he said he “did nothing illegal” and was sorry about leaving the post before he could advance reconstruction of the region.

Akiba, 60, is a Lower House member of the LDP.

Although he failed to win a single-seat constituency in Miyagi Prefecture in the Tohoku region in the Lower House election last autumn, he won a seat in the proportional-representation segment.

When Akiba became reconstruction minister in August, he denied having any ties whatsoever with the Unification Church or its affiliates.

But reports surfaced that he was indeed connected with an organization affiliated with the Unification Church, now formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

His problems continued.

According to reports, between 2011 and 2020, two groups headed by Akiba paid a total of 14.14 million yen ($107,000) to his mother and wife.

The mother did not report the income on her annual tax forms.

In addition, his campaign finance reports for last year’s election showed that his two government-funded aides received payments despite not being registered as campaign staff.

Kishida in October effectively dismissed Daishiro Yamagiwa as economic revitalization minister after repeated reports surfaced about his ties to the Unification Church.

The following month, Yasuhiro Hanashi resigned as justice minister over remarks that were criticized as making light of capital punishment, and Minoru Terada was ousted as internal affairs minister over political funding scandals.