JCP chair: Defense Agency has ridiculed parliament

Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Yamasaki Taku has admitted that the ruling parties (LDP, Komei, and Conservative) pressured the Defense Agency into withholding the main part of its report to the Diet on the agency's collection and circulalistion of citizens' personal information.

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo at a regular news conference on June 12 said that the ruling parties deceived and ridiculed the Diet.

Shii demanded that the ruling forces give a full account of the hows and whys they tried to withhold the whole report.

Pointing out that neither the Defense Agency nor the Self-Defense Forces is capable of revealing the truth of the privacy-listing problem by themselves, Shii emphasized that the Diet should summon all persons concerned as witnesses from the agency, SDF, and the ruling camp for an intensive Diet discussion to uncover the full details of the incident.

The opposition parties (JCP, Democratic, Social Democratic, and Liberal) are united on the opinion that they cannot overlook the defiant act against the Diet which is the highest organ of state power.

The opposition camp confirmed that they will urge the ruling camp to have a rigorous investigation by a third party to find out the facts and determine who is responsible for the report. They will boycott all Diet discussions unless these points are accepted. (end)