The ruling Liberal Democratic Party will decide next Thursday whether to punish former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka over her alleged misuse of her secretaries' state-paid salaries, LDP lawmakers said.
The LDP's Party Ethics Committee Chairman Nobuyuki Hanashi met with LDP Secretary General Taku Yamasaki on Friday and reported the decision, they said Friday.
The committee is expected to hold an unofficial meeting Tuesday to study documents, such as statements of the secretaries' salaries and a written explanation submitted earlier by Tanaka, the lawmakers said.
Tanaka on Thursday conveyed to the ethics committee that she would not meet its demand to submit additional files because she doubts about whether the files would be kept confidential.
She was referring to the weekly magazine Shukan Shincho's latest edition, which went on sale Thursday. It reported the "full text" of a document she had submitted to the panel Tuesday.