Takashi Sasagawa, a Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker, tops a list ranking the personal assets of 29 newly appointed ministers and senior vice ministers.

Sasagawa, 65, state minister in charge of science and technology policy, declared 2.84 billion yen, and Defense Agency chief Toshitsugu Saito, 56, also of the LDP, followed with 506 million yen, according to the assets report, released Friday.

The report, released following the Dec. 5 launch of the current Cabinet, covers 11 of 18 ministers and 18 of 22 senior vice ministers newly appointed to the Cabinet. The report does not cover those who were retained from the previous Cabinet.

Assets include land, buildings, savings accounts, vehicles and art collections.

The 29 were named in the Cabinet that was launched a month before the Jan. 6 administrative reform, which consolidated 23 governmental bodies into 13.

Former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, 63, is ranked third at 169 million yen, while Chikara Sakaguchi, 66, minister of health, labor and welfare, is listed with the fewest assets, worth 26 million yen.

Hashimoto, now serving as state minister in charge of administrative reform and Okinawa and Northern Territories, is with the LDP; Sakaguchi is a member of New Komeito, a coalition party.

Individual assets among ministers average 357 million yen when including those released last year by the seven reappointed Cabinet ministers. That's up 100 million yen from the average amount of the previous Cabinet launched by Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori in July.

Fukushiro Nukaga, a 57-year-old state minister who has drawn criticism over his close ties with scandal-tainted mutual aid foundation KSD, is the lowest-ranked of 10 LDP ministers, at 44 million yen.

Nukaga serves as state minister in charge of economic and fiscal policy.

In connection with the KSD scandal, lawmaker Takao Koyama was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of taking 20 million yen in bribes.