Thirty-seven lawmakers received illegal political donations last year before punishments for corporate donations to individual politicians were enacted in April 2000, according to a government report released Thursday.

Four Cabinet members, including Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, were among the lawmakers who received such donations, according to a report compiled by the Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry. The report covers income and expenditures in 2000, and includes donations and government subsidies.

Other Cabinet members named in the report were: Takeo Hiranuma, minister of economy, trade and industry; Tsutomu Takebe, minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries; and Nobuteru Ishihara, state minister on administrative reform and deregulation.

Former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and Koichi Kato, former secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, also received illegal donations.

The law banning donations to individual politicians was enacted Jan. 1, 2000, in a bid to sever cozy ties between politicians and business concerns. Violators were liable for punishment after a three-month moratorium.

The moratorium was set so politicians would not be punished if they inadvertently broke the new law while becoming familiar with it.

The law continues to allow corporate donations to political parties.

The illegal donations were made in a last-minute effort to avoid punishment, analysts said.

Illegal corporate donations to Diet members and local assembly members, including former members, totaled about 150 million yen.

According to the report, 4,325 political parties and related organizations, including support groups for individual politicians, collected 156.9 billion yen in political funds in 2000, up 3.4 percent from the year before.

They collected 5.38 billion yen in corporate donations, the lowest since the government began gathering statistics in 1976, due to the enforcement of the law, while donations by individuals hit 8.52 billion yen, up 20 percent from last year.

Income from businesses such as party newspapers reached 55.34 billion yen, while income from government subsidies was 31.39 billion yen.

Income from membership and other fees charged by parties and related organizations was 14.26 billion yen, while the parties had debts of 9.74 billion yen.

In addition to donations, political parties and individual politicians collected 13.14 billion yen through fundraising parties.

Total expenditures by the parties, related organizations and individual politicians came to 174.5 billion yen, up 25 percent due to the House of Representatives election in 2000.

KSD funded Ishihara

The now-defunct political arm of scandal-hit mutual-aid organization KSD gave administrative reform minister Nobuteru Ishihara some 600,000 yen in political funds in April 2000, according to a government report Thursday.

Hoseiren, a KSD affiliate disbanded in December, bought 30 of 830 tickets sold for a fundraising party at a Tokyo hotel in April 2000 that was sponsored by a group with ties to Ishihara, according to the report compiled by the Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry.

According to one of Ishihara's secretaries, he became acquainted with Tadao Koseki, 80, founder and former head of KSD, at the event and they once dined together. Hoseiren officials later offered to buy the 30 tickets.

"At the time of the party, we did not know about the problems with KSD," the secretary said. "Since KSD was raided last fall, we haven't been able to get in touch with Hoseiren officials and were thus unable to return the money."

KSD is a Tokyo-based group that offers industrial insurance to small and medium-size companies. It is supervised by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and has 1.07 million members. Hoseiren was a lobby group whose members allegedly supported lawmakers in their election campaigns.

Koseki was arrested 10 months ago and has been tried on charges including breach of trust for misusing the organization's money.

The report also shows Hoseiren bought tickets last year worth 6 million yen for parties to support former Labor Minister Akira Amari. Amari has said the KSD affiliate purchased party tickets worth a total of 7 million yen.

Former House of Councilors members Masakuni Murakami and Takao Koyama, who were indicted earlier this year on charges of taking bribes from KSD, submitted incomplete reports for last year on their political funds, saying some documents were seized during investigations, according to the report.