A senior lawmaker of the main opposition party asked Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday to attend parliamentary committee sessions to explain the grounds for holding a state funeral next month for assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The public is split over the decision to hold the state funeral given Abe's divisive political legacy and scandals, as the government continues to make preparations to receive thousands of mourners including foreign dignitaries at the Sept. 27 event at an indoor arena in Tokyo.
Jun Azumi, the Diet affairs chief of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, told reporters after making the request to Tsuyoshi Takagi, his counterpart from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, that the prime minister should explain the decision "to the people in his own words in parliament."