By Xinhua
Tokyo : Japan's Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka attempted suicide Monday amid a financial scandal and is in a critical condition.
Matsuoka, 62, was taken to hospital after he was found trying to hang himself at a parliamentary housing building in Tokyo's Akasaka district, Kyodo news agency reported.
Doctors were trying to revive Matsuoka's heart, which had stopped functioning, the agency said.
The minister had recently been in the midst of scandals over political funds and was faced with allegations that he reported large utility expenses for a government office building.
Two of his campaign fund management bodies have received 13 million yen ($110,000) in donations from 14 Kumamoto-based contractors, who were awarded construction projects by the Japan Green Resources Agency (J-Green), a government-controlled forestry management body suspected of having been involved in rigging bids.
The minister has allegedly received some 8.5 million yen ($70,000) in donations from contractors implicated in bid rigging for forestry road construction projects.