Economy, trade and industry minister, internal affairs minister Yasutoshi Nishimura; Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications, Junji Suzuki, and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Ichiro Miyashita, submitted letters of resignation Thursday morning, public broadcaster NHK said.

Meanwhile, chief Cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno was expected to do the same later in the day at a press conference, the report said.

The LDP has recently been under heavy scrutiny amid accusations that its largest faction failed to declare hundreds of millions of yen in fundraising revenue in political funding reports, possibly pooling secret funds.

Allegations have been levelled against several key Cabinet and LDP figures from the faction, namely Seiwaken, or the Seiwa policy study group previously led by the late former prime minister Shinzo Abe.