This Feb 2020 photo shows Hiromu Kurokawa, head of the Tokyo High Prosecutors Office in Tokyo, Japan. Kurokawa tendered his resignation after a popular weekly magazine reported that he flouted social distancing rules to play mahjong for money at the home of a newspaper reporter. (SADAYUKI GOTO / KYODO NEWS VIA AP)

TOKYO -Japan’s justice minister on Thursday said Tokyo’s top prosecutor had tendered his resignation earlier in the day following media reports that he had been gambling with acquaintances, flouting social distancing recommendations.

Speaking to reporters, Justice Minister Masako Mori said that Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office chief Hiromu Kurokawa, a close ally to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, had admitted to playing mahjong for money, which she said was “truly regrettable”

Speaking to reporters, Justice Minister Masako Mori said that Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office chief Hiromu Kurokawa, a close ally to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, had admitted to playing mahjong for money, which she said was “truly regrettable”.

She added that his resignation would be approved at a Cabinet meeting on Friday.

Kurokawa has been at the center of public uproar over government efforts to raise the retirement age for prosecutors after he was allowed to stay in his post beyond retirement age of 63.

Abe’s government this week abandoned its push to enact a bill during the current session of parliament that would raise prosecutors’ retirement age to 65 from 63, and let the cabinet defer retirement of senior prosecutors for three more years, a step critics said threatened judicial independence.

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Opposition party lawmakers and others also said the legislation was aimed at giving a retroactive legal basis to the decision to keep Kurokawa in his post.

In the latest twist, Kurokawa was hit with a social media backlash over a media report that he allegedly played mahjong for money during the state of emergency, flouting social distancing guidelines. Gambling is illegal in Japan, with some exceptions.

Abe told reporters the government was trying to confirm the facts of the matter.

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“Naturally, there will be criticism (over Kurosawa),” independent political analyst Atsuo Ito said. “Certainly, it will be damaging.”

Also on Thursday, about 660 lawyers and scholars filed a complaint with Tokyo prosecutors seeking an investigation into whether Abe and two executives of his political support group broke campaign and funding laws by subsidizing the attendance of backers at a reception the night before a state-funded cherry blossom viewing party in 2018, Kyodo news agency reported.

Abe has denied wrongdoing. He was also accused by opposition lawmakers last year of favoring supporters with invitations to the cherry blossom viewing party.

Public support for Abe has slipped over what critics say is his clumsy handling of the coronavirus outbreak, which has tipped the world’s third-largest economy into recession.

Abe was expected to lift the state of emergency in more regions on Thursday as new infections decline, moving to resume sorely needed economic activity.

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Japan has not had the explosive surge seen in many other countries, with 16,433 confirmed cases including 784 deaths as of Wednesday, according to NHK.