Japan’s new trade minister is not even a week into the job, and he’s got a second scandal bubbling up around him.  Earlier this week, Yoichi Miyazawa admitted that his political support group spent funds at an S&M Bar in Hiroshima.  Now, he’s admitting he owns shares in the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), even though his ministry oversees the nuclear power industry in Japan.

“There will be absolutely no change in my stance toward TEPCO because of retaining the shares,” Miyazawa told reporters on Friday morning.  It’s not illegal for him to own such shares, although it’s customary for ministers to divest them before assuming a cabinet post.  There are rules preventing him from selling the shares while serving as minister, so he will put them in a blind trust.

That’s quite a change from Miyazawa, the nephew of a former prime minister.  When he was appointed trade minister, he quoted the Japanese proverb, “Don’t straighten your crown beneath a plum tree,” meaning that even an innocent act can lead to suspicions of stealing fruit – simply put, avoid the appearance of impropriety.  Unless it involves stocks, I guess.

Earlier, Miyazawa denied that it was him who spent a fun evening at an S&M Bar in Hiroshima, ran up charges of about A$200 on his political support group’s tab, and reported the jaunt as “entertainment expenses”.

Miyazawa took over the trade ministry from Yuko Obuchi, the scion of another former Prime Minister.  Obuchi was forced to resign in disgraced after revelations she used political money on personal items such as cosmetics. And she was one of two cabinet ministers who resigned over irregularities on that day last week.