Japan's new Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Takehiko Endo resigned on Monday, one week after taking office, over a scandal involving a farmers' group that he heads.

Endo decided to quit later Sunday and submitted the resignation to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the premier's official residence on Monday morning, becoming the third farm minister and the fifth Cabinet minister to leave office since Abe stepped into power last September.

At a press conference hold at the farm ministry shortly after, Endo said he decided to resign "out of consideration for not damaging public trust over farm administration," and apologized from the bottom of his heart to the premier, according to Kyodo News.

Analysts here said that the resignation will deal another blow to Abe, who has to face the opposition bloc's criticism at the next extraordinary Diet session on Sept. 10.

Newly appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs Yukiko Sakamoto also resigned in the morning over a scandal involving falsely-reported political expenditure.

Endo, 68, became farm minister a week ago when Abe reshuffled his Cabinet on Aug. 27 to regain public trust after the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's crushing defeat in an upper house election in July.

Several days ago, the farmers' mutual aid association Endo headed was found to have illegally obtained 1.15 million yen (US$9, 900) in government subsidies in 1999 by padding its membership numbers when applying for a crop damage compensation scheme.

Edo, who has headed the group in Yamagata prefecture since 1982, said Saturday that he was informed of the matter three years ago, arguing that he was not directly involved with it.

Since Abe's first Cabinet formed in September 2006, three farm ministers have failed to stay in the post. The late Toshikatsu Matsuoka committed suicide in May over a fund scandal, while his successor Norihiko Akagi resigned two months after taking the post.

(Xinhua News Agency September 3, 2007)