Takaichi's Pick of Scandal-Hit Deputy Govt Spokesperson Stirs Diet

Tokyo, Nov. 4 (Jiji Press)--Tensions are rising in the Diet, Japan's parliament, over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's pick of scandal-mired lawmaker Kei Sato of the House of Councillors, the upper Diet chamber, as deputy chief cabinet secretary.

Opposition parties object to Sato attending Upper House meetings as he has yet to face an election since he was found to be among the Liberal Democratic Party members involved in the ruling party's "slush funds" scandal. Sato serves as a liaison between the Takaichi administration and the Upper House.

How Takaichi, who was inaugurated last month, will address the situation is closely watched.

"I feel strongly that the prime minister is neglecting opposition parties," Yoshitaka Saito, the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan's Diet affairs chief for the Upper House, told reporters Friday. "It's the responsibility of the government and the ruling parties to resolve this situation."

Sato had been a member of the now-defunct LDP faction once headed by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and is close to Takaichi, a lawmaker of the House of Representatives, the all-important lower Diet chamber, as they are both elected from Nara Prefecture in western Japan.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]