The investigation of allegations that Rikuzankai, the political funds management body of Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa, falsified funds reports has entered a new phase with the Jan. 23 questioning of Mr. Ozawa by the special investigation squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office.

It is unusual for a politician at the helm of a governing party to be questioned by public prosecutors as if he were an accused party, even when he submits to the questioning voluntarily as Mr. Ozawa did last week.

In a written statement distributed after the questioning, Mr. Ozawa denied involvement in the falsification of reports. Rikuzankai failed to record its purchase of a plot of land for some ¥340 million on Oct. 29, 2004, and money received beforehand, in its 2004 report. Instead, they were recorded in its 2005 report.