Hakubun Shimomura, a former policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, had asked to resume the practice of kicking back part of revenues from fundraising parties to faction members, according to the ex-chief accountant of a now-defunct faction in the party.
Junichiro Matsumoto, who has already been found guilty over a high-profile political funds scandal involving the LDP faction previously led by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, made the testimony during Thursday's hearing at the Tokyo District Court in the trial of former Upper House lawmaker Yasutada Ono and a secretary.
The faction had decided to stop the kickbacks in April 2022.
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