Finance Minister Hikaru Matsunaga's departure late April 14 for a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven was delayed to this morning due to Diet deliberations.
Because the Diet is currently holding extensive deliberations in both chambers over the government's upcoming economic stimulus package, Matsunaga will stay in Washington for only one day and skip most other multilateral functions planned for the week.
His departure itself was thrown into doubt Monday evening when the ruling Liberal Democratic Party indicated it had given up on getting the finance chief out of the country due to the Diet situation.