The Tokyo District Court accepted a former Liberal Democratic Party faction treasurer's admission that he conspired with a superior to falsify the group's 2001 political funds report, and sentenced him Friday to a suspended 10-month prison term.
The sentence meted out to Toshiyuki Takigawa, 55, who had pleaded guilty to violating the Political Funds Control Law, is unlikely, however, to bring closure to the scandal that has rocked the LDP's largest faction over a 100 million yen donation from the Japan Dental Association.
The donation was reportedly handed in check form to former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, who relinquished the faction's helm last summer when the scandal broke.