Opposition leaders expressed readiness Sunday to continue seeking a retraction of the "divine nation" remark made by Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and his explanations about the remark at the Diet.
Speaking in a roundtable discussion on a TV progrm, Kazuo Shii, chief of the Japanese Communist Party's secretariat, said that while Mori has apologized for the remark, he has yet to admit it was a mistake.
"Mori is trying to evade a Diet debate. He merely glossed over the remark by holding a news conference," said Hiroshi Kumagai, acting secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition party.