TOKYO, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Vice Finance Minister Junichi Fukuda will resign from his post amid allegations that he sexually harassed female reporters, Finance Minister Taro Aso announced Wednesday.
Fukuda's resignation came less than a year after he took on the role as the ministry's top bureaucrat and at a time when the ministry has been under fire for a number of improprieties, including a cronyism scandal implicating Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
"Given the situation since the report came out, it has become difficult to fulfill my duties as vice finance minister," Fukuda was quoted as telling a press briefing on the matter.
Fukuda, 58, was alleged by the weekly Shukan Shincho magazine to have made remarks to female reporters while drinking that were overtly sexual in nature.
In an audio clip, thereafter released on the magazine's website, Fukuda could allegedly be heard asking a female reporter in a bar or restaurant, "Can I give you a hug?" and "Can I touch your breasts?"
"The weekly magazine story about me is not true and I will continue to make my case in court," Fukuda said.
The ministry said that following an interview, Fukuda said he has no recollection of having dined with a female reporter.
But Aso said in a separate press briefing Wednesday that Fukuda's resignation would go ahead.
"I have decided to accept his resignation," said the finance minister.
Fukuda's resignation came at a time of sinking public support for Abe's cabinet and the powerful finance ministry, owing to a prolonged cronyism scandal centered around the ministry's involvement in the cut-price sale of a piece of state land to a nationalist school operator with ties to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's wife.
In a prior blow to the ministry, Nobuhisa Sagawa, who previously headed the ministry's financial bureau overseeing the shady land sale, stepped down.
A separate influence-peddling scandal also yet to be resolved involves the government selecting a veterinary school run by a close friend of Abe to be opened in a specially deregulated zone.
