Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Jan. 11 addresses the first meeting of a new body set up by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to discuss political reform. (Takeshi Iwashita)

A political reform body set up by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to address a funding scandal that has embroiled factions in the party was on shaky ground even before it held its first meeting on Jan. 11.

Of the 38 members on the panel, 10 are lawmakers from the faction once led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and all but one of them are thought to have received kickbacks.

The Abe faction, the party’s largest and most influential, is in the crosshairs of Tokyo prosecutors because it is thought to have accumulated the lion’s share of unreported mountains of cash through fund-raising parties.

As such, the LDP can hardly expect to escape questioning about the seriousness with which it is trying to deal with the scandal that has already cost several leading politicians their posts.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ordered the formation of the new body to discuss political reform and the first meeting was held Jan. 11.

Members who sold more than their quota of tickets to the parties received that excess amount back from the faction. Both the faction and the individual lawmakers did not include those funds in their political fund reports, sources said. Some lawmakers never bothered to transfer the excess amount to the faction for a kickback later, but simply kept the amount over the quota in their office.

According to sources, the Abe faction accumulated about 600 million yen ($4.1 million) over the last five years.

The sources said nine of the 10 Abe faction members who are part of the new body on political reform received kickbacks from the slush fund accumulated by the Abe faction through the fund-raising parties.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has already arrested Lower House member Yoshitaka Ikeda, who belonged to the Abe faction, on suspicion of violating the Political Fund Control Law.

Prosecutors are continuing their investigation into whether the Abe faction as a whole breached the same law. They are also looking into other lawmakers who chalked up sizable amounts through kickbacks, sources said.

One of those is believed to be Naoki Okada, a former minister for regional revitalization who now serves as acting head of the new political reform body.

Sources said the nine Abe faction lawmakers received between several millions of yen to several hundreds of thousands of yen in kickbacks.

When contacted by The Asahi Shimbun, some of the nine refused to comment on whether they received kickbacks. The office of one lawmaker said the Diet member would fulfill his role on the new party organ.

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