Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's week-old Cabinet suffered a major blow Monday as farm minister Takehiko Endo stepped down over a money scandal just eight days after he was appointed.
Endo is the first Cabinet minister to go down after the Aug. 27 reshuffle and the fifth since Abe took office last September.
He quit in connection with an agricultural mutual aid association that he headed which had improperly received government subsidies.