The amount of donations given by the political arm of the Japan Dental Association to 16 lawmakers and two former legislators does not match the sums recorded in their political funds reports, Kyodo News found Saturday.
Political funding bodies for six of the 18 lawmakers, including those for Koichi Kato, a Liberal Democratic Party member, and Kansei Nakano, vice speaker of the House of Representatives, have corrected their reports after finding they had misreported.
On Feb. 2, prosecutors searched the offices of the political arm of the JDA, a major contributor of funds to the LDP, over the alleged violation of the Political Funds Control Law.
The JDA, which counts just over 70 percent of all dentists in Japan as members, is not established as a political organization and is thus barred from making political donations. It set up its political arm, which currently has about 50,000 members who contribute membership fees totaling 1.8 billion yen a year.