Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering replacing beleaguered Defense Minister Tomomi Inada with one of her predecessors in the upcoming Cabinet reshuffle early next month, sources close to the government and ruling coalition said Wednesday.

Inada faces mounting questions about her competency, including allegations she tried to hide an inconvenient development in the handling of controversial data that documented Japanese peacekeepers' activities in a U.N. mission in South Sudan, an accusation she strongly denies.

The former defense ministers thought to be possible picks are Itsunori Onodera, Yoshimasa Hayashi, Yasukazu Hamada and Inada's immediate predecessor, Gen Nakatani, all lawmakers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.