The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly was thrown into confusion August 8 prior to its first session after the July election over an attack by the Japanese Communist Party on the Liberal Democrat candidate standing for assembly president
The start of the session, scheduled for 1 p.m., was delayed until 3:30 p.m. because the JCP demanded that Kozo Tanaka, the LDP candidate for assembly president, explain an article that appeared in the August 8 issue of the Japanese-language daily the Mainichi Shimbun. The Mainichi reported that Tanaka had presented an expensive orchid, costing about 20,000 yen, to nearly all 54 LDP assembly members elected in the July election, in an apparent attempt to win support for his bid to become metropolitan assembly president.
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