TOKYO -- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is preparing to replace Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno and three other ministers as early as Thursday over a political fundraising scandal, in the first of two rounds of changes to his cabinet and the ruling party's leadership, senior party officials say.
According to senior officials in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, there is a proposal to remove Matsuno and three ministers from the LDP faction at the center of the scandal: Yasutoshi Nishimura, minister of economy, trade and industry; Junji Suzuki, minister for internal affairs and communications; and Ichiro Miyashita, minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
