Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Koichi Kato helped an unauthorized organ transplant broker by arranging a trip to Japan for two Chinese doctors interested in learning Japanese transplant technology, sources close to the matter said Sunday.

Kato, a senior politician and chairman of the Japan-China Friendship Association, asked the Japan Society of Transplantation to enable two Chinese transplant surgeons to visit Tokyo in January to learn transplant techniques from one of its senior members, the sources said.

The sources said the broker, a man in his 40s whose nationality is unknown, brokered transplants for Japanese patients in China. The Organ Transplant Law prohibits unauthorized brokering. The man has not received a state permit.