Upper House LDP Members Wishing to Face Ethics Panel over Scandal

Tokyo, Nov. 14 (Jiji Press)--Japanese House of Councillors lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who were involved in a slush funds scandal have begun to express their wish to explain themselves at a parliamentary ethics panel.

The development comes as LDP members in the upper chamber of the country's parliament believe facing the Deliberative Council on Political Ethics may become a prerequisite for receiving the party's endorsement in next summer's Upper House election.

However, some have expressed concern that attending panel hearings could "open a Pandora's box," as there are unexplained accusations unique to the Upper House side over the scandal, in which some revenues from fundraising party ticket sales were kicked back to lawmakers.

LDP lawmakers in the House of Representatives, the lower parliamentary chamber, are also generally opposed to such moves because they may embroil the Lower House side.

Former senior Upper House members of the LDP faction once led by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, including Junzo Yamamoto, deputy chairman of party members' general assembly in the chamber, held a meeting on Wednesday, in which they are believed to have deliberated how to deal with the ethics panel.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]