Japan’s government is shaken once more by the resignation of Agriculture Minister Takehiko Endo, who decided to step down due to a financial scandal only one week after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reshuffled the cabinet.

Endo is the third agriculture minister to leave office in four months, deepening the crisis that took over Abe’s cabinet. After his Liberal Democratic Party lost the July elections and control of the parliament’s upper house, Abe decided to change the tainted image of his government and reappointed some of his ministers last week.

Abe named Endo to lead the agriculture ministry, but the 68-year-old politician didn’t remain in office for long and submitted his resignation on Monday. He acknowledged that a farm group led by him has overstated the damage caused by harsh weather to crops in 1999 in order to receive additional government funds.

Endo apologized for the scandal that “added to the people’s distrust.” His predecessor Norihiko Akagi also resigned after being dragged into an accounting scandal. Prior to Akagi’s appointment as minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, Toshikatsu Matsuoka occupied the seat.

Matsuoka committed suicide on May 28 in the middle of a scandal that involved undeclared political donations. Just a few hours before being scheduled to face questioning in front of a parliamentary panel, he committed suicide by hanging.

No more than five cabinet ministers have resigned since Abe became prime minister last year and the scandals they were involved in gave a huge blow to the government’s image. After Abe made changes in key positions last week, opinion polls suggested that people responded in a positive manner to his decision.

But this latest resignation would certainly bring back into the people’s memories the numerous scandals that prompted politicians to ask for Abe’s resignation. An accounting scandal took the first page of newspapers numerous days, government officials being accused of benefiting from millions of bogus pension payments that were allegedly directed towards their private expenses.