A political funding scandal surfaced Saturday involving farm minister Norihiko Akagi, who took over the post last month after his predecessor committed suicide amid a similar scandal.</PARAGRAPH> <PHOTO> <TABLE WIDTH='200' ALIGN='RIGHT' BORDER='0'> <TR> <TD><IMG ALT='News photo' BORDER='0' SRC='../images/photos2007/nn20070708a1a.jpg' WIDTH='200' HEIGHT='287'/></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><FONT SIZE='1'><B>Norihiko Akagi </B></FONT></TD> </TR> <TABLE> </PHOTO> <PARAGRAPH>The controversy surrounding questionable office expenses is another disaster for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe before the July 29 Upper House election.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>The home of Akagi's parents in Chikusei, Ibaraki Prefecture, was registered as the office of a political support organization, and more than 123 million yen was booked as rent, utilities and other costs from 1990 to 2005, sources said.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>'I've never received any rent,' Akagi's father said. 'My house has not been used as the office.'</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>The organization submitted political funding reports to the Ibaraki prefectural election board saying its office is in the home of Akagi's parents.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Akagi denied any wrongdoing, saying the home is the support group's main office.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>'There is nothing fictitious about the accounting,' he said.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Akagi said there is no need for him to resign over the matter.</PARAGRAPH> <PHOTO> <TABLE WIDTH='250' ALIGN='LEFT' BORDER='0'> <TR> <TD><IMG ALT='News photo' BORDER='0' SRC='../images/photos2007/nn20070708a1b.jpg' WIDTH='250' HEIGHT='368'/></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><FONT SIZE='1'><B>The home of agriculture minister Norihiko Akagi's parents in Chikusei, Ibaraki Prefecture, is seen Saturday. </B> KYODO PHOTO</FONT></TD> </TR> <TABLE> </PHOTO> <PARAGRAPH>While opposition parties called on Abe to dismiss Akagi, the prime minister denied any need to do so.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>'This is not such a problem,' Abe told reporters at his official residence. 'I heard he –

has given an explanation."

In the 16-year period up to 2005, a total of 22.8 million yen was registered as rent, 71.6 million yen as personnel costs, 13.5 million yen as utility costs and 15.6 million yen as other miscellaneous costs, according to the funding reports.

"I was not aware that my house had been registered as an office," Akagi's father said. "There has been no staff member on duty and during past election campaigns there were no activities."

If the home was not used as the office, the question becomes what happened to the funds.

Akagi has been elected to the House of Representatives six times since 1990.

The scandal comes as Abe's government and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party faces a tough race in the House of Councilors election.

In the past week, Fumio Kyuma was forced to leave his defense minister's post for comments derided as justifying the U.S. atomic bombings.

In December, administrative reform minister Genichiro Sata resigned from the Cabinet to take responsibility for "inappropriate accounting" of political funds.

Sata admitted one of his political support groups included expenditures by another group on its own books.

In May, farm chief Toshikatsu Matsuoka committed suicide amid a scandal involving his political funds and was replaced by Akagi. Matsuoka booked huge utility fees in his political funding report despite using a rent-free office for Diet members.