Lower House recommends that Suzuki resign

At the request of the Japanese Communist Party and three other opposition parties, the House of Representatives on June 21 adopted a resolution recommending lawmaker Suzuki Muneo, who was arrested for involvement in graft, to resign.

This is the second such arrest in Japan's Diet, following the one by the House of Councilors in 1997, Tomobe Tatsuo who was arrested for an Orange Mutual Aid-related bribery scandal, the first one for the House of Representatives.

The Liberal Democratic Party, which has twice opposed submitting the draft to the lower house plenary session, changed its attitude. Ignoring the party policy, some LDP lawmakers left the hall or kept sitting at a standing vote.

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi said, "The passing of the recommendation only means a starting point to investigate Suzuki Muneo's scandal. The Diet must cleanse the whole of LDP scandals entangled with 'Muneo-politics.' At least, it should immediately ban donations to political parties from corporations under contracts for public works projects." (end)