Appointed less than three weeks ago, Japan's justice minister is reportedly set to resign after admitting organised crime links. Keishu Tanaka was brought into the cabinet at the start of October as part of a reshuffle aimed at shoring up Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's shaky administration.

But he's been forced to admit a yakuza connection after a tabloid magazine revealed he once acted as matchmaker for a senior mobster.

Tanaka, whose ministry oversees the work of the courts, apologised and has thus far insisted he won't be stepping down, including at a parliamentary session where he was grilled on the links.

"I won't resign. The relationship with a crime syndicate is an age-old story," he said late on Thursday, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun.

But a senior Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) official said: "Tanaka should resign and I said so to the Prime Minister," while another close to the premier said "we can't protect Tanaka any more", the Yomiuri said.

The yakuza are not illegal in Japan, but, like Italy's Mafia or China's triads, are involved in a range of illicit activities including drug dealing, prostitution, loan sharking and construction corruption.

This morning Tanaka skipped a cabinet meeting for "health reasons", the chief cabinet secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters, declining to provide details.

Television footage showed him getting mobbed by reporters, with the minister again saying he would not resign.