Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, also president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, on Friday denied former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's involvement in a high-profile slush funds scandal involving LDP factions.
At the day's meeting of the Cabinet Committee of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet (Japan's parliament), Kishida said, "At the beginning of this week, I asked (Mori about the scandal) over the phone."
"There was nothing concrete to confirm" that Mori had been involved in the practice of creating slush funds at an LDP faction previously headed by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Kishida said. Many believe that Mori was involved in the scandal, as he had previously served as head of the faction.