NHK has learned from informed sources that the largest faction of the main ruling Liberal Democratic Party paid kickbacks to several dozen members who exceeded their quotas in selling fundraising party tickets.

Tokyo public prosecutors suspect the lawmakers failed to register the income in their political organizations' financial reports. The prosecutors are believed to be investigating the flow of funds by hearing from faction officials on a voluntary basis.

Japan's political funds control law obliges political organizations to record in their funding reports the total revenue from fundraising parties they sponsor.

The faction, once led by late Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, allegedly pooled secret funds to pay kickbacks to member lawmakers who exceeded their quotas in selling fundraising party tickets.

The total amount of the kickbacks is thought to have come to several million dollars during the five-year period through the end of 2022.

NHK has learned from informed sources that some lawmakers may have each received kickbacks of over 10 million yen, or 68,000 dollars, during the period.

Sources say the faction had an exclusive account to manage the revenues from party ticket sales, but there are discrepancies between the amounts deposited into the account and those reported in the political funding reports.

Meanwhile, the political organizations of the lawmakers that received kickbacks allegedly may have failed to report the payments as income.