Taku Yamasaki, secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, effectively admitted Wednesday that he instructed the Defense Agency to withhold its full in-house report on how the agency systematically compiled private data on individuals seeking public information.
"It is true that we urged agency officials to use the full report as background data when opposition parties ask questions during Diet deliberation," Yamasaki said.
He made the remark during a press briefing also attended by the secretaries general of New Komeito and the New Conservative Party.