The prime minister's office has ordered bureaucrats to prepare memos containing answers to questions likely to be put to Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and other key Cabinet members during the Diet session that began Monday, according to a Cabinet Affairs Office document.
But Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said Tuesday the government ordered officials to retract the document.
The document instructed the bureaucrats to draw up memos that Hatoyama could use when responding to questions from Diet interpellators, and asked them to add particular points to consider in answering the questions. Interpellators, usually opposition lawmakers, routinely ask specific policy-related questions during Diet sessions when such time is allotted.