Veteran politician Kosuke Ito failed to declare 59.64 million yen in political donations that he received from a Tokyo-based political organization between 1990 and 2002, according to sources.

The office of the Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker who formerly headed the defunct National Land Agency admitted to having failed to declare donations for 2002 and promised to check whether the remaining donations were properly handled.

The 59.64 million yen was donated to Ito's political fund management group and the LDP's Tokyo No. 23 constituency chapter between 1990 and 1995 and between 1997 and 2002, the sources said.

A former executive of the donor group said he urged Ito to deal with the money properly but was ignored.

The support group was once dissolved after 1995 and reunited in 1997. The group finally disbanded in 2002.

Separate from the political donation case, Ito recently drew media attention over his involvement in the ongoing building safety scandal that has had far-reaching impact on this quake-prone nation.

In late November, Ito admitted arranging a meeting between an official at the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry and the president of Huser Ltd., a condominium developer involved in the scandal, two days before the ministry disclosed on Nov. 17 that the firm had constructed buildings using falsified quake-resistance data.

During the Nov. 15 meeting, Huser President Susumu Ojima -- who was introduced to the ministry official by Ito as a "friend who wants help" -- asked the official not to reveal the fraud, according to sources close to the case.

Ito told reporters he introduced Ojima to the official because he "thought they needed to discuss the background of the case and measures to be taken."

Ojima donated 160,000 yen in both December 2002 and December 2003 to Ito's fund management body, and Huser bought about 1 million yen worth of tickets for an Ito fundraising party in September 2004, according to political sources.