A Lower House ethics committee is set to be convened next week to probe the background of a slush-funds scandal — possibly behind closed doors.
Following a week of back-and-forth discussions that have forced the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to make concessions, ruling and opposition parties agreed Thursday on the schedule for the committee and final deliberations on the government’s budget proposal for the next fiscal year.
The committee will likely gather next Wednesday and Thursday to interrogate five senior LDP lawmakers over their involvement in a kickback scheme, Manabu Terata, a lawmaker for the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and senior member of the committee, told reporters Thursday.