The crumbling popularity of Shinzo Abe, the Japanese Prime Minister, has taken another body-blow after an already scandal-tainted member of his Cabinet appeared in public with unexplained injuries on his face.

Norihiko Akagi, the 48-year-old Agriculture Minister accused last week of lying over questionable payments to a secret private account, attended a meeting at his ministry in Tokyo with two large bandages on his face. He had a bloodshot eye and appeared not to have shaved for several days.

Asked whether he had fallen over, Mr Akagi dismissed the question. Grilled over the issue by journalists, Cabinet ministers and other MPs, he staunchly refused to divulge how the injuries had occurred. Mr Akagi was back in Tokyo from a recent trip to Switzerland and France, but showed no signs of injury when he arrived in Japan on July 13.

Given the official ministerial entourage that accompanies Mr Akagi when he steps outside the front door of his home, speculation centred on the theory that the minister received his injuries at home, possibly from a family member. He later admitted that his wounds had not been received “in the official line of duty”.

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