The fund management bodies of House of Councilors President Satsuki Eda and three senior members of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan logged nightclub fees as political expenses in their annual political funds reports from 2003 to 2007, the reports say.

The fund management groups for Eda, education minister Tatsuo Kawabata, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yorihisa Matsuno and House of Representatives Rules and Administration Committee Chairman Takeaki Matsumoto get subsidies from the DPJ, which includes state subsidies from taxes.

Eda's group paid about ¥2.4 million to 11 hostess clubs in the five-year period, the reports said. Eda has nominally left the party in order to serve as Upper House leader.

The nightclubs were allegedly used for unofficial meetings of group officials and the media or supporters.

Eda's office said it would rethink its use of such clubs.

Matsuno's political fund body spent about ¥500,000 at two nightclubs, while Matsumoto's used ¥300,000 on two clubs.

Kawabata's group also used bars. A report in the daily Mainichi Shimbun said one of his venues included a "new half" pub — a cabaret where men dressed up as and acting as women (new halves) perform on stage — in the Kabukicho entertainment district in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said that while he has yet to question the parties concerned, he believes the expenditures were reported properly and legally.

"I don't think it was a mistake that they correctly handled spending at such venues as cabaret clubs," the DPJ lawmaker told a news conference.

But politicians should act in a way that doesn't raise public concern, he said.

Hirano denied the expenditures included money the government provided as subsidies.