Abe backs embattled defence minister amid scandal

Tokyo

JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe backed his defence minister on Tuesday after the main opposition party called for her to resign for misleading Parliament about her links to a controversial educational foundation.

Mr Abe told Parliament Defense Minister Tomomi Inada should fulfil her responsibility to explain the situation, but stay in her job.

Ms Inada, a former lawyer, apologised for telling a parliamentary committee she had never advised a nationalist kindergarten operator at the centre of a scandal over a suspicious land deal. The defence…