(AP)
Updated: 2007-08-26 10:25

TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's beleaguered government was hit by another scandal Saturday, as local media accused a Cabinet minister of accounting irregularities.

Yoshihide Suga, minister for internal affairs and communications, claimed about 20 million yen (US$172,235) in expenses for rent on two offices in 2005 even though he owned the building they were in and they cost him nothing the Yomiuri newspaper said.

Kyodo News agency carried a similar report.

The reports came as Abe planned to reshuffle his Cabinet on Monday, following series of scandals which led to one of the worst defeats for the prime minister's ruling Liberal Democratic Party in a parliamentary vote last month.

Suga claimed he had paid 19.56 million yen (US$168,446) in rent in 2005 for the two offices in Kanagawa, his constituency just south of Tokyo, even after he had purchased the land and the building that housed the offices in December 2004, according to the reports.

Kyodo quoted Suga as saying there was nothing wrong with his accounting.

Officials at Suga's office were not immediately available for comment Saturday.

Earlier this month, Agriculture Minister Norihiko Akagi resigned to take responsibility for the election defeat. He had become embroiled in an accounting scandal.

In the July 29 upper house elections, the Liberal Democratic Party suffered one of its worst setbacks in its 50 years of political domination, allowing the opposition Democrats to emerge the top party in the parliament's 242-seat upper house.

Akagi is suspected of reporting 90 million yen (US$729,100) in office expenses over the past decade for an office that was registered at his parents' address, and was defunct. He also faces several other accounting irregularities. Akagi has denied any wrongdoing.

In May, Akagi's predecessor, Toshikatsu Matsuoka, killed himself amid allegations he misused public money.

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Yuriko Koike said Saturday she will not seek to retain her post in the upcoming reshuffle. She just assumed the portfolio last month, becoming the country's first female defense minister.

"I think it will be better for someone else to take over the post in order for parliamentary discussions to go smoothly," Koike told reporters.

Koike's predecessor, Fumio Kyuma, resigned amid a public outcry over his suggestion that the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II were unavoidable.

Abe was to return to Japan late Saturday after a weeklong trip to South and Southeast Asian countries.