Foreign Ministry bureaucrats' memos on their contacts with lawmakers do not have to be cross-checked by the legislators for fact confirmation, an advisory panel on reforming the ministry agreed Wednesday.
Lawyer and former public prosecutor Jun Watanabe, vice chairman of the ministry's "panel for change," told reporters the members reached a consensus on the matter during their 10th meeting at the ministry's Iikura Guesthouse.
Watanabe said the panel agreed that Diet members can check the memos after obtaining copies by following information-disclosure procedures, and if they want to challenge the content, judicial authorities will be the ones to determine which side is right.