Tokyo

Major Japanese opposition parties decided Thursday to boycott parliamentary discussions from Friday as the ruling camp refused to answer a question on a state-funded annual cherry blossom-viewing party.

 The opposition parties urged the government and the Liberal Democratic Party-led ruling camp to disclose whether a chairman of a company allegedly engaged in unlawful business was invited to a cherry blossom party based on a recommendation from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The company, Japan Life Co., was searched by law enforcers in April this year. It effectively went bankrupt in 2017 after collecting a huge amount of money from customers.

The government sent an invitation to the then chairman of the company to the cherry blossom party hosted by the prime minister in 2015.

The invitation included number 60, one of the figures that apparently indicate that invitee were chosen at the recommendation of the prime minister, the chief cabinet secretary or others.

Citing a document containing the figures submitted by the Cabinet Office to the Japanese Communist Party, the opposition parties claim the chairman is highly likely to have been invited from the recommendation quota allocated to Abe or his wife, Akie.

Senior officials of the opposition parties, including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, agreed Thursday to request intensive discussions on the matter at the budget committees of both chambers of the Diet, the country's parliament.

The opposition parties will also request that digital data of invitee lists be restored and submitted to the Diet.

Speaking to reporters, CDPJ Secretary-General Tetsuro Fukuyama said his party will not return to Diet discussions unless Abe, the LDP's president, agrees to meet the opposition's demands.

[Jiji Press]