Abe's LDP rocks again ahead of elections as lawmaker quits over sex scandal

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP) was dealt another blow Friday as lawmaker Kensuke Miyazaki said he would quit the lower house after admitting he cheated on his then pregnant wife with a model.

Miyazaki, 35, told a news conference that his actions were "inappropriate" and added along with his apology that his affair had undermined and contradicted his drive as a politician.

Miyazaki had been under the political spotlight for vociferously pushing for paternity leave for members in parliament, stating that he planned to be the first ever lawmaker to seek leave from the Diet to support his wife.

"I wanted to take a step toward changing our society in which male participation in child-rearing is significantly underdeveloped and women alone are saddled with its duties," he wrote in a blog post.

He drew flak for the comments from some quarters in parliament, but was hailed by LDP party leader and prime minister Abe, who lauded Miyazaki's efforts as being in line with his own efforts to get more women into the workforce and returning to the workforce after taking maternity leave.

Abe described the now disgraced Miyazaki taking on the male-dominated parliament as being exactly "what a politician should be."

Miyazaki's affair was initially reported in the Shukan Bunshun weekly magazine. According to the magazine and as conceded by Miyazaki, he spent the night at his condo with well-known model, Mayu Miyazawa, in Kyoto Prefecture, where the lawmaker is represented.

The magazine said he traveled from Tokyo to Kyoto specifically to spend the night with Miyazawa, with the affair coming just six days before his wife, Megumi Kaneko, 37, also a lower house member, gave birth.

Miyazaki's initial pronouncements of wanting to help advance the rights of women in the workplace by highlighting the importance of husbands and fathers to also be granted time off work to help with child-rearing, caught the imagination of the nation, who hailed him as a progressive, forward-thinking politician.

But following the revelations of his mucky private life, he was quickly lambasted by opposition party members, with Secretary-General of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), Yukio Edano, saying the news was "infuriating," and had served to "tarnish" the DPJ's own push for paternity leave.

Yoshio Urushibara, chairman of the Central Secretariat of the LDP's coalition partner Komeito, called into question the ethical standards of politicians like Miyazaki, stating that lawmakers should have "the highest ethical standards."

With Abe desperately trying to ensure his party members stay out of the headlines of the tabloid press here for unethical acts, particularly in light of former Economic Minister Akira Amari being forced to step down following bribery allegations, and numerous Cabinet members quitting for other money scandals, Miyazaki's behavior has once again served to erode some of the public's faith in the ethical standards of the ruling party.

Abe is relying on public support, not yet guaranteed, in a possible referendum on constitutional reform following this summer's upper house elections. Endit