Japan will sack three top energy officials over their handling of the Fukushima atomic disaster and scandals that have eroded public trust in the country's nuclear policy, the government said Thursday.

Banri Kaieda, the minister of economy, trade and industry, told a press conference that he was planning sweeping staff changes at his powerful ministry, which both promotes and regulates the nuclear industry.

Kaieda said the reshuffle aimed to "breathe new life" into the ministry.

He signalled that the changes will include his ministry's top bureaucrat, a vice minister, and the heads of the ministry's Agency for Natural Resources and of the watchdog body the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

"Regarding the personnel changes at the ministry of economy, trade and industry, we have been discussing that for about a month," Kaieda told reporters. "It will be on a significant scale."

When asked whether the changes will include the top three energy officials, Kaieda responded: "It's OK for you to think that." He said the changes would be officially announced later, without specifying when.

The three senior government officials will be the first to lose their jobs over the nuclear crisis, although a reconstruction minister stepped down after causing outrage with his scathing remarks to leaders of tsunami-hit regions.

Japan's magnitude 9.0 seabed quake and tsunami caused the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl 25 years ago at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which has since leaked radiation into the air, ground and sea.

Since the March 11 disaster, the ministry has come under in for criticism for its decades-old heavy promotion of nuclear power, and for seeking to manipulate public opinion by planting questions at open talks.

Kaieda's comments followed a news report that he and Prime Minister Naoto Kan were in the final phase of talks about personnel changes, and that Kaieda himself was considering resigning soon after he dismisses the top officials.

The minister, who has been at odds with the premier in recent months, showed the personal pressure the nuclear crisis has put him under when he burst into tears during a recent grilling by opposition lawmakers.

Kan, a former grassroots activist, has advocated a nuclear-free Japan and criticised the ministry, which has formed cozy ties with the energy industry. Power companies have given cushy jobs to many retired government officials.

The public has grown distrustful of Japan's nuclear policy amid the crisis at the nuclear plant, run by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

Anger has intensified in recent weeks after media reported that the safety agency had asked power companies to mobilise their workers and contractors to plant questions in support of nuclear energy at public talks.

The nuclear safety agency, which should regulate but not promote nuclear energy, said it would create a third-party panel to investigate the matter.

Kan is planning to split the watchdog agency away from the industry ministry to boost its independence and regulatory strength.

It would become part of the environment ministry, according to a proposal drafted by Goshi Hosono, minister in charge of the nuclear crisis.

The UN atomic watchdog, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, in June stressed the importance of "regulatory independence and clarity of roles" after officials visited Japan's tsunami-hit atomic power plant.

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