Opposition parties refused Tuesday to convene a scheduled session of the Lower House Budget Committee and instead unleashed a salvo of taunts over the surprise resignation of farm minister Koya Nishikawa the day before.

Nishikawa resigned over a donation scandal, and opposition parties took the opportunity to lay into Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for poor judgment in appointing him.

Abe's Liberal Democratic Party had hoped to suffer minimal fallout from Nishikawa's departure, but with the opposition digging in its heels, it looked increasingly as if the damage will include the fiscal 2015 draft budget not being approved by March 31, the last day of the current fiscal year.