Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is being criticized for distributing gift certificates to 15 first-year lawmakers in his party in a scandal shaking his already weak grip on power.
Ishiba has denied breaking political funding laws and said he won't resign. But opposition lawmakers and rivals in his own party have said the gifts were excessive and showed Ishiba was out of touch, especially after the governing Liberal Democratic Party had a disastrous election loss last year due to its earlier political funding irregularities.
