Kiyomi Tsujimoto, a former Social Democratic Party lawmaker who resigned from the Lower House in late March over alleged misuse of her secretaries' state-paid salaries, has returned more than 23 million yen, her office said Friday.
Tsujimoto's office said it contacted the House of Representatives on Monday and paid back 23.3 million yen -- the full salaries of the two secretaries between 1996 and 1998, plus interest.
"It does not mean we have acknowledged it was an act of fraud," an official representing the office said. "We returned the money because we should not have received it in the first place."