Ex-Japan PM Abe apologizes and corrects parliament statements over funding scandal

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks during the lower house parliamentary session as he faces questioning over a possible violation of election funding laws, in Tokyo, Japan December 25, 2020. REUTERS/Issei Kato

TOKYO (Reuters) - Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday corrected statements he had made in parliament related to a political funding scandal that has also cast a pall over the current premier and apologized for it to the public.

From 2019 Abe had made repeated false denials that his political funding group had subsidised cherry blossom viewing parties for his supporters, in possible violation of the country's strict political funding laws.