Tokyo: Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Friday began questioning member lawmakers who failed to declare some money in political fund reports in a high-profile money scandal involving LDP factions.

About 90 lawmakers will be questioned, most of whom belonged to the faction once headed by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe or the faction led by former LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai. Both factions have seen their officials indicted in the scandal.

The LDP is also planning to conduct a questionnaire survey of all party members, and based on the results, it would consider punishment under party rules.

The party “will strive to grasp the actual situation of the reporting failures,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of Japan’s parliament, on Friday. “After that, we will consider how to deal with political responsibility,” he added.

The questioning will be carried out by a six-member team led by LDP General Council Chairman Hiroshi Moriyama. The other members are party Policy Research Council chair Kisaburo Tokai, Election Strategy Committee chair Yuko Obuchi, Executive Acting Secretary-General Hiroshi Kajiyama, Masaji Matsuyama, secretary-general for the LDP in the Upper House, and Takamaro Fukuoka, chair of the LDP Policy Board in the Upper House.

The six members will work in pairs to interview each lawmaker, and lawyers will also participate in the interviews. They will aim to confirm the details of the scandal, including how much the lawmakers received in kickbacks and how the unreported funds were used. The results will be reported to LDP Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi.

The LDP initially planned to question only senior members of the Abe faction, but decided to expand the scope of the probe, in light of demands from opposition parties.

On Monday, the LDP plans to show the opposition camp a provisional list of LDP lawmakers who failed to report funds.

Opposition parties are poised to refuse to engage in parliamentary deliberations if they find the LDP list to be inadequate.

JIJI Press