Prosecutors arrested a former top Japanese defense bureaucrat and his wife yesterday on suspicion they accepted lavish gifts from companies - including one linked to General Electric - in exchange for contracts, officials said.

The bribery scandal - in which the current finance minister who twice served as defense minister is also implicated - threatens to further weaken the two-month-old government of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.

Former Vice-Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya, 63, was arrested on suspicion he accepted a dozen free golf trips worth about 3.9 million yen ($35,850) from 2003 to 2006, knowing that favors were expected in return, the Tokyo District Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.