Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will file a libel suit against a magazine that printed photographs of him with a man allegedly linked to gangsters, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Monday.
The suit will be filed "in a day or two," the top government spokesman said at a news conference.
The latest edition of the Weekly Gendai, which hit newsstands Monday, carries two pictures of Mori and a man the magazine claims is a former official of a violent rightwing group.
The man is suspected of having close links with organized crime groups, it said.
The weekly said the pictures were taken in Osaka around October 1998 when Mori was secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The man's identity is not given and his face is obscured in the pictures.
Fukuda, who said Friday that Mori does not remember meeting the man, said again Monday that the prime minister does not have personal ties to him.
Fukuda also said Friday that Mori had warned the magazine he would take legal action over the pictures.
The latest problem for Mori came a week after the prime minister, suffering from low support ratings, reshuffled his Cabinet with the hope of strengthening his grip on power.
Political analysts have said that Mori could suffer serious damage if he sparks public outrage with another verbal gaffe or scandal.