Four cabinet ministers in Japan quit on Thursday over a fundraising scandal involving the ruling party’s most powerful faction.
More than 500m yen (£2.8m; $3.4m) is alleged to have ended up in slush funds over a five-year period through 2022.
Tokyo prosecutors have also launched a corruption probe, Nikkei reported.
It is the latest blow to Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s increasingly unpopular government, whose approval ratings have plunged.