Mom may have made donations to Japan P.M.

TOKYO, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's mother may have surreptitiously given him millions of yen for his political campaigns, sources say.

Investigators are having difficulty untangling Hatoyama's contributions from his mother's, The Asahi Shimbun reported. Yasuko Hatoyama's father founded the tire maker Bridgestone Corp., and the family's finances are managed by a corporation, Rokko Shokai.

A former Hatoyama staffer is under investigation for allegedly falsifying records to conceal the source of almost 200 million yen (about $2 million) in illegal campaign contributions. The money, allegedly from Rokko Shokai, was described as coming in small donations that did not need to be reported individually.

Hatoyama has said any money involved was his.

If Yasuko Hatoyama leant money to her son's campaign fund, that would not violate Japanese campaign finance laws.

Hatoyama became prime minister this year when the Democratic Party of Japan won control of Parliament, ending decades of almost unbroken Liberal Democratic Party rule.