Kishida Urges LDP Factions to Appropriately Respond to Funding Questions

Tokyo, Nov. 20 (Jiji Press)--Prime Minister Fumio Kishida demanded Monday that the five factions of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party appropriately respond to questions over their handling of political funds they have raised.

Kishida, also LDP president, made the request in the wake of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation squad conducting voluntary interviews on the intraparty groups, including those led by Kishida himself and once chaired by slain former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

According to a criminal complaint filed with the office, the factions did not include in political funds reports income from fund-raising parties totaling some 40 million yen.

"Each group should deal appropriately with the matter by responsibly reviewing (its funds reports)," Kishida told reporters at the prime minister's office.

At a press conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, who was once secretary-general of the Abe faction, declined to comment on those groups' possible violations of the political funds control law, saying the investigative authorities' ongoing activities cannot be disclosed.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]