TOKYO, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday approved the appointment of Masayoshi Hamada as senior vice minister of the Reconstruction Agency.
Hamada, 60, is a third-term upper house member belonging to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) junior Komeito coalition party ally.
His appointment comes following his predecessor, Hiroaki Nagasawa, who also belonged to Komeito, relinquishing his post and party position for allowing a female to stay in a housing complex for lawmakers, in violation of the party's rules.
The scandal comes as Komeito and other parties are gearing up to go to the polls in a snap general election to be held next month.
Revelations of Nagasawa's indiscretion came to light following a weekly magazine's inquiry on the indiscretion, which led to Nagasawa being quizzed by a senior party official and the two-term upper house member resigning to account for the scandal.
The new appointment Wednesday comes amid a string of scandals and gaffes to hit the ruling LDP-led bloc, including accusations of cronyism leveled at Abe himself.
The Reconstruction Agency, established in the wake of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster to deal with rebuilding efforts, has itself been beset with gaffe-linked scandals leading to its representatives resigning.
Shunsuke Mutai resigned as parliamentary vice reconstruction minister in March after firstly being criticized for getting a piggyback ride across a large puddle in a typhoon-hit town.
The LDP lawmaker drew flak, thereafter, for saying at a fundraising event that his gaffe led to the government buying more rain boots for officials to borrow, which had helped the profit margins of the boot-making industry.
Masahiro Imamura, meanwhile, quit as reconstruction minister in April after remarking that it was better that the 2011 earthquake hit northeastern Japan rather than the greater Tokyo metropolitan area.
Abe's Cabinet on Wednesday also approved the appointment of Jiro Akama as senior vice minister of the Cabinet Office following a high-profile defection.
Akama, 49, is a third-year LDP lawmaker and represents a single-seat district in Kanagawa Prefecture, west of Tokyo.
The new appointment follows Mineyuki Fukuda leaving the post to join Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike's new Party of Hope.
