The average income among Diet members in 1999 was 30.44 million yen, up 1.94 million yen from a year earlier, according to a report released Monday.
The top three income earners for the year were all Lower House members of the Liberal Democratic Party. Takashi Sasagawa took the No. 1 spot. His combined salary and profits from stock sales reached almost 2.09 billion yen.
Shozaburo Nakamura came in a distant second, taking home 439.3 million yen, largely from the sale of his tenant's right on a piece of land. He was followed by Kazuna Matsumoto, who runs the drug store chain Matsumoto Kiyoshi, with 156.51 million yen.