Sources say former agriculture minister Yoshikawa Takamori has admitted receiving cash from a former corporate executive while in office. He occupied the post from October 2018 to September of last year.

Yoshikawa, of the Liberal Democratic Party, faces allegations of receiving cash totaling 5 million yen, or about 48,000 dollars, from the former head of a major egg producer based in Fukuyama City in Hiroshima Prefecture.

The Japanese government has started delivering cloth masks to every household in the country in a bid to deal with the shortage amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Post office workers began delivering packages containing two washable masks to homes in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward on Friday morning.