The government will revise the selection system of its annual art prizes after the revocation last month of the 2006 award to painter Yoshihiko Wada, whose works were found to be plagiarisms, education minister Kenji Kosaka said Tuesday.

Kosaka said his ministry will increase the number of selection committee members to 11, up from the current seven, and will raise the number of recommendation panel members to 15 from the current 10.

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry will replace all of the existing selection committee members with new experts, Kosaka said.

The current members picked Wada as the year's recipient of the education minister's Art Encouragement Prize. The ministry revoked the award in June after Wada was judged to have plagiarized paintings of noted Italian artist Alberto Sughi. It was the first case in which the minister's art prize was withdrawn.

The selection committee's new members will be nominated by the end of the preceding year before a selection period to give them enough time to examine candidate works for the prize, ministry officials said.

Kosaka said his ministry will do its best to make the selection process fair and be careful to prevent further plagiarism.

The education minister annually gives the Art Encouragement Prizes in 10 fields -- theater, film, music, dance, literature, art, broadcast, popular entertainment, art promotion and critique.