The former head of an agency involved in the large-scale financial scandal, which recently shook Japan, has reportedly committed suicide after jumping off the window of his apartment on Tuesday.

The body of Shinichi Yamazaki, 76, was found just a day after Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka took his own life hours before he was to face questioning in parliament over the scandal.

Yamazaki was found dead in his pajamas in the parking lot next to the residential building, he lived in, situated in Yokohama south of Tokyo.

Police are investigating the case as a suicide because he left his shoes in the stairwell on the sixth floor of the building, a typical act by a Japanese person before committing suicide.

Yamazaki was an executive director at Japan Green Resources before it became a public corporation in 2003. He headed the agency between October 1988 and October 1990.

The Tokyo District Special Prosecutors Office last week searched his house in connection with a bid-rigging scandal, which led to the arrest last week of officials at the agency and its contractors.

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