Three lawmakers received illegal political donations from corporations and other organizations during a three-month period in 2000 before punishments for taking such donations came into effect, according to a Tokyo Metropolitan Government report released Tuesday.
Kichio Inoue, a Liberal Democratic Party member in the House of Councilors, and Banri Kaieda and Kazuo Inoue, both Democratic Party of Japan members in the House of Representatives, received such donations, according to the report compiled by the election management commission of the local government.
However, the DPJ's Inoue claims he merely made a "mistake" in registering the donations.