Japanease PM sacks 3rd minister in a month

Tokyo: Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida sacked his internal affairs minister on Sunday over funding irregularities, NHK television said, in a blow to his scandal-prone Cabinet that already lost two ministers in one month.

Internal Affairs Minister Minoru Terada has been under fire over several accounting and funding irregularities. In one, he acknowledged that one of his support groups submitted accounting records carrying a dead person's signature.

NHK reported that Kishida summoned Terada to his office late on Sunday and had him submit his resignation.

Kishida, when asked last week about a possible dismissal, did not defend Terada and only said he was going to make his own decision.

Terada said he did not break any law, promised to fix the accounting issues and showed determination to stay on.