Tokyo, Nov. 4 (Jiji Press)--Japanese opposition parties are stepping up their criticisms of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi for her absence from an online summit of the Group of Seven major industrialized nations held in early October.
The opposition side is frustrated at vague explanations given by Takaichi, also president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and by the Foreign Ministry over the matter.
Some suspect that Takaichi skipped the G7 talks because she attended a dinner meeting with LDP Vice President Taro Aso and other party executives held at her official residence just before the online session among the G7 members--Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States plus the European Union.
Opposition parties apparently hope to use this as a new tool to grill the Takaichi administration, after the resignation of scandal-hit Kazuo Yana from the post of agriculture minister last month. Yana was effectively dismissed due partly to his inappropriate remarks.
"There are inconsistencies between parliamentary remarks by the prime minister and Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi. Which is correct? " Kiyomi Tsujimoto of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan said at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Senate, the upper chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament, on Oct. 27.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
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