The ruling Liberal Democratic Party admitted Wednesday it has given ¥20 million ($131,440) to local chapters where candidates have been denied official party endorsement over their involvement in the LDP's slush funds scandal, stirring up criticism of how the party has handled disgraced candidates in the tightest general election in years.
The LDP had previously said it would not back 12 of the party members involved in the scandal. Eight of the scandal-tainted candidates head LDP chapters of their own district but are running as independents, including former party policy chief Koichi Hagiuda.
The news was first reported on Wednesday in the Japanese Communist Party newspaper Shimbun Akahata.
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