Prosecutors have questioned officials from several construction firms on suspicion they provided funds used by Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa in connection with a controversial Tokyo land purchase, investigative sources said Tuesday.
The firms asked by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office to respond to voluntary questioning have included Kajima Corp. and Mizutani Kensetsu, and all of them are taking part in a dam construction project in Iwate Prefecture, the ruling party kingpin's home district, the sources said.
Prosecutors on Tuesday also grilled Takanori Okubo, one of Ozawa's former government-paid secretaries, on a voluntary basis in connection with the case, suspecting more than ¥800 million in revenues and expenditures linked to the 2004 land buy had not been entered into the political funding reports of Ozawa's fund management body, Rikuzankai.