Japanese opposition parties on Sunday reiterated their request that 32 lawmakers of the House of Councilors, the upper chamber of the parliament, appear before a panel on political ethics over a money scandal rocking the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Speaking in a television program the same day, senior opposition party officials also said that the Upper House's Deliberative Council on Political Ethics should hold hearings for the 32 lawmakers in a fully open setting.
The 32 lawmakers are those who failed to officially report some funds such as kickbacks paid from revenues raised at fundraising parties hosted by their LDP factions. Hiroshige Seko, a former LDP secretary-general in the Upper House, is among them.