The Lower House of the Diet on Thursday passed a rare resolution urging a lawmaker to quit over his controversial remarks that alluded to Tokyo waging war with Moscow to regain control of a group of disputed islands.
The resolution by eight ruling and opposition parties against Hodaka Maruyama that was unanimously adopted at a plenary session of the House of Representatives states that he is "not qualified as a Diet member" and presses him to make a decision on his future as a Diet lawmaker.
Maruyama, 35, was expelled from the opposition Nippon Ishin no Kai shortly after he made the remarks in May during a visa-free exchange program between Japan and Russia. He has so far defied pressure from opposition party lawmakers to resign, saying his future is "up to a judgment of eligible voters to be made in an election."