Tokyo prosecutors have begun searching the offices of an Upper House lawmaker in connection with a fundraising scandal involving factions of the main ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Investigators from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office raided Ohno Yasutada's offices in central Tokyo on Thursday.

Ohno is a member of the LDP's largest faction, which was once led by late Prime Minister Abe Shinzo.

The faction is suspected of failing to include in its political funds reports kickbacks it paid to offices of member lawmakers who sold tickets for fundraising events in excess of their quotas.

Tokyo prosecutors raided the offices of the Abe faction on December 19 on suspicion of violating the political funds control law.

On Wednesday, they searched the office of Lower House member Ikeda Yoshitaka, who is believed to have received kickbacks worth more than 40 million yen, or about 280,000 dollars.

The Ohno office is suspected of receiving kickbacks worth about 50 million yen, or about 350,000 dollars, from the faction during a five-year period leading up to 2022. His political organization allegedly failed to list the kickbacks as income in its political funds reports.

Ohno has been elected to the Upper House twice from the Gifu electoral district. He served as parliamentary vice minister, the number three post of the land and transport ministry, for one year through August 2017.