Ex-LDP Accountant to Testify before Diet Panel

   Tokyo, Feb. 17 (Jiji Press)--A former accountant for a now-defunct faction of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party plans to appear before a Diet committee for unsworn testimony over a slush funds scandal, the party said Monday.
   The LDP notified the opposition bloc of the plan at an executive meeting of the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament.
   The opposition wants to question the former accountant, Junichiro Matsumoto, as early as this week. The two sides are seeking to reach an agreement on the timing and location of the testimony, as well as whether to make the hearing public.
   Matsumoto served as chief accountant of the now-defunct faction once headed by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
   Matsumoto twice rejected requests from Lower House Budget Committee Chairman Jun Azumi to appear before the committee, although it decided last month to summon him by a majority vote with support from opposition parties.

(2025/02/17-18:05)

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