Photo/Illutration Yasutoshi Nishimura after his resignation as economy minister on Dec. 14 (Takeshi Iwashita)

Tokyo prosecutors investigating a widening money and politics scandal in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s Abe faction have questioned former economy minister Yasutoshi Nishimura on a voluntary basis, sources said.

Nishimura is among six Abe faction bigwigs who have been questioned by prosecutors in the fallout over allegations the Abe faction systematically pooled sales of tickets to its fund-raising parties into a slush fund and later dispersed the money back to its member lawmakers.

One of them is Ryu Shionoya, a former education minister.

The others were collectively known as the faction’s “Goninshu,” or “five leaders of tomorrow.”

Aside from Nishimura, they are: Hirokazu Matsuno, former chief Cabinet secretary; Tsuyoshi Takagi, former chairman of the LDP’s Diet Affairs Committee; Hiroshige Seko, former secretary-general of the LDP’s Upper House caucus; and Koichi Hagiuda, former chairman of the LDP’s Policy Research Council.

Nishimura presented himself for questioning on Dec. 29.

Having interviewed all six prominent faction figures, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office will now seek to determine whether a conspiracy existed with the staff member responsible for preparing the faction’s political fund balance report to conceal the kickbacks.

According to the sources, the sums collected by members of the Abe faction in excess of the quota for party ticket sales were not recorded as income in the faction’s income and expenditure report but returned to the members via the slush fund.

Such underhand behavior, which apparently went on for years, would constitute a violation of the Political Fund Control Law.

Prosecutors suspect the amount of money returned was not even listed as legitimate expenditures. For the five-year period from 2018 to 2022, the slush fund ballooned to about 500 million yen ($3.5 million), the sources said.

It is already known that leading Abe faction executives decided to scrap the slush fund return system in 2022, and reached agreement to do so, only to withdraw the decision later in the year.

Nishimura served as the faction’s general secretary at the time of the decision to scrap the slush fund system and Takagi held the post when the decision to withdraw it was made.

Prosecutors consider the background to the 2022 decisions as a clear indication the party executives were aware of the illegality of the slush fund return system, the sources said.

During their questioning of Nishimura, prosecutors are thought to have sought an explanation from him.

The other five Abe faction figures who were questioned have denied involvement in the omission of information on the income and expenditure report, according to the sources.

They explained that they knew about the return system but did not discuss the matter among themselves and left it to those in charge of accounting.

The investigation will also focus on suspicions that individual faction members who received slush fund money did not list the kickbacks as income on their own political organization’s income and expenditure reports.

The six bigwigs who were questioned are alleged to have received kickbacks ranging from more than 10 million yen to approximately 1 million yen.

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