The Liberal Democratic Party was gearing up Tuesday to pressure Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government over the imminent indictment of ruling party heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa for alleged involvement in falsified political funding reports.
With ministers in the Democratic Party of Japan-led government growing increasingly concerned about the effect of Ozawa's indictment on forthcoming Diet deliberations, the LDP, the largest opposition force, also seeks to summon Ozawa and the DPJ's Yukio Hatoyama, who stepped down as prime minister in June also in part due to a money scandal.
"Prime Minister Kan is pretending not to know about the issue. We will call on Mr. Ozawa and Mr. Hatoyama to testify (at the Diet)," Nobuteru Ishihara, LDP secretary general, said at a news conference.