Toshikatsu Matsuoka, 62, was found unconscious in his official apartment and rushed to a hospital, where he was declared dead hours later, a Tokyo Metropolitan Police official was quoted as saying.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the death was ``very regrettable.''
'Matsuoka, a 62-year-old House of Representatives lawmaker from Kumamoto Prefecture, was taken to Keio University Hospital in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward at around 1 pm, after being found unconscious in his unit in a parliamentary housing building in Tokyo's Akasaka district,' said the Japan Times,
He recently came under fire for accepting political donations from contractors alleged to have been involved in bid-rigging for public works projects , with opposition lawmakers demanding that he resign as minister. He had also been grilled for not providing a clear-cut accounting of expenditures claimed by his lawmaker's office, which was in fact rent-free, the report said.
Matsuoka had repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.