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TOKYO, July 7 (Reuters) Japan's farm minister, who assumed the post after his scandal-tainted predecessor hanged himself, had filed false financial statements in a scandal that could deal a blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, media reported today.

The reports come as Abe is struggling to win back foundering voter support, which has dropped below 30 per cent ahead of an upper house election this month.

The home of Farm Minister Norihiko Akagi's father was registered as the office of a political organisation which supports him and about (97,310 dollars) was booked as rent, utilities and other costs from 2003 to 2005, Kyodo news agency quoted sources familiar with the case as saying.

''As the home was not the office and the spending is fictitious, doubts have arisen that the spending was misappropriated,'' Kyodo said.

Akagi later denied the reports, saying he had done nothing wrong.

''The office has been the core of the supporters' group. It has been the base since I was first elected,'' Akagi told reporters. ''I have never changed or appropriated (the statements) fictitiously.'' Akagi, 48, was appointed in early June following the suicide in late May of then Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka, who had been under fire for a series of political funding scandals.

''The responsibility of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is extremely heavy for appointing someone similar to former Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka,'' the Nikkei business daily quoted Yukio Hatoyama, secretary-general of the main opposition Democratic Party, as saying.

The opposition camp was expected to call for Akagi's resignation, Nikkei said.

In late December, the minister for administrative reform resigned after acknowledging that a group of his political supporters had filed ''inappropriate'' financial statements.

Abe said on Thursday that his ruling coalition faced a tough fight in the July 29 upper house election, but refused to consider defeat before the battle had even begun.

His woes were exacerbated last weekend, when his defence minister made remarks that appeared to condone the 1945 atomic bombings of two Japanese cities, sparking public outrage.

Abe refused to fire the minister, but he quit on Tuesday.

($1 = 123.31 yen) REUTERS SV RN1502