Fukushiro Nukaga resigned Tuesday morning as minister for economic and fiscal policy over allegations that he received 15 million yen from the mutual aid organization KSD in return for favors.
Nukaga tendered his resignation to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori amid mounting pressure to do so from heavyweights in the Liberal Democratic Party as well as the LDP's coalition partners, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party.
Mori appointed Taro Aso, 60, a former director general of the Economic Planning Agency, as Nukaga's successor. Aso, a senior member of the LDP faction led by Foreign Minister Yohei Kono, officially assumed the post in an attestation ceremony at the Imperial Palace in the morning.