TOKYO: Prime Minister SUGA Yoshihide on Thursday acknowledged that he made the decision not to appoint six of the 105 nominees recently recommended by the Science Council of Japan.

“Keeping in mind the importance of diversity, I made the decision as the appointer,” Suga told a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of parliament.

He also said that the SCJ recommended only a small number of member candidates from the private sector and younger generations.

During the meeting, in which party representatives questioned Suga about his recent policy speech, the prime minister denied that the government has changed its interpretation of the SCJ law in connection with the rejection.

The SCJ issue was also discussed at a plenary meeting of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber.

Japanese Communist Party leader Kazuo Shii accused Suga of violating Article 23 of the Constitution, which guarantees academic freedom.

Suga stressed he does not think that his rejection infringes academic freedom of any individual SCJ members or the independence of the council’s operation.

He also said he only exercised the right to appoint and dismiss public servants, claiming that his rejection creates no constitutional problem.

Suga explained that the government’s Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, whose members include nongovernmental experts, called for greater diversity in the SCJ membership.

“I made the final decision (to reject the six nominees) after getting a briefing on the recommendation situation and sharing my view with the Cabinet Office,” Suga said, adding he does not think he has defamed the six through the rejection.

Nobuyuki Baba, secretary-general of the opposition Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party) demanded that Suga dissolve the Lower House for a snap election if no progress is made in constitutional reform debates during the ongoing extraordinary Diet session.

But Suga replied, “We put the top priority on novel coronavirus countermeasures and the economic recovery.”

He dismissed a call for a consumption tax cut from the JCP’s Shii.

On an envisaged third supplementary budget for fiscal 2020, Suga told the Upper House that the government will “take necessary steps, including a budgetary measure, without hesitation while closely watching economic developments in and outside the country.”

Asked about Chinese President Xi Jinping’s planned visit to Japan as a state guest, Suga said, “We’re not in the situation to arrange a specific schedule.” Xi’s visit has been postponed due to the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Speaking before the Lower House, Suga said that the soured Japan-South Korea ties must not be left as they are.

“We ask (South Korea) to make an appropriate response, based on our country’s consistent positon,” he continued, referring to a bilateral wartime labor issue.

JIJI Press