TOKYO: Members of a suprapartisan group of lawmakers promoting kimono showed up at the Diet, Japan's parliament, dressed in the traditional Japanese clothing, on Monday, when this year's 150-day regular Diet session started.

The lawmakers, including Justice Minister Masako Mori, who is a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and Tetsuro Fukuyama, secretary-general of the major opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, gathered in front of the main entrance to the Diet building for commemorative photos.

Heated debate is expected during the session, with the opposition camp poised to grill the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over, among others, a high-profile scandal in which an incumbent lawmaker has been arrested for allegedly accepting bribes from a Chinese company that was planning to join a casino-featuring integrated resort in Japan, as well as controversial state-funded annual cherry blossom-viewing parties hosted by the prime minister.

"We need to manage the Diet and politics with 'wa'," veteran LDP lawmaker Bunmei Ibuki, head of the suprapartisan group and former speaker of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, told reporters, using the Japanese word meaning harmony.

At the day's Lower House plenary meeting, Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, a member of the suprapartisan group, made an economic policy speech in kimono.

JIJI Press