Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said Monday that he was ready to scrap a controversial budget conference that seats top politicians elbow to elbow with top government ministers.
The forum, called the Government-Ruling Parties Budget Conference, will become redundant when the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy is formed in January during the government-wide realignment of ministries and agencies.
"We created the (conference) because the ruling parties requested it. If they say they no longer need it, we can scrap it," Mori told reporters.