Sources have told NHK that Tokyo prosecutors have questioned four lawmakers of the largest faction of the main ruling Liberal Democratic Party on a voluntary basis over a political fund scandal.

The Abe faction is suspected of having paid kickbacks to the offices of member lawmakers who sold fundraising event tickets in excess of their quota, without recording the amount as revenue in their political fund reports.

Last week, the prosecutors raided the offices of the Abe faction, which was once led by late Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, and the Nikai faction on suspicion of violating the political funds control law.

The offices of most lawmakers in the Abe faction, including six executive members, have allegedly received some of the revenues from fundraising events as kickbacks.

Sources told NHK that those questioned on a voluntary basis as of Sunday included former Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno Hirokazu, former Diet Affairs Committee Chairperson Takagi Tsuyoshi, former LDP Upper House Secretary-General Seko Hiroshige and former education minister Shionoya Ryu.

Shionoya serves as the chair of the Abe faction. Matsuno served as the faction's secretary-general from September 2019 through October 2021, and Takagi currently serves in the post since August 2022.

Prosecutors suspect that the Abe faction systematically converted some of income from fundraising events into slush funds.

Prosecutors are believed to have questioned the lawmakers on a voluntary basis about their views of the practice as senior faction officials and lawmakers whose offices received the kickbacks.