Former Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa was found dead Sunday at his home in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, local media reported.

Police said that Nakagawa was lying face down on a bed and no apparent external wounds were detected.

On Feb. 17, Nakagawa stepped down as finance minister in former Prime Minister Taro Aso's cabinet over allegations he appeared drunk at a recent G7 summit in Rome.

Nakagawa slurred his speech, at times appeared half asleep and had trouble answering questions from reporters at a news conference following the Group of Seven (G7) financial leaders' meeting in the Italian capital on Feb. 14.

A graduate from the University of Tokyo, Nakagawa won his first lower house seat in 1983. He held prominent posts in the cabinet and the LDP, including agriculture minister, trade minister and party policy chief and was once regarded as a likely prime ministerial candidate.