Top opposition party members of the House of Councilors on Sunday said they would pursue the accountability of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and National Public Safety Commission head Kosuke Hori over recent police misconduct.
Speaking on an NHK TV program, Giichi Tsunoda, secretary general of the Upper House lawmaking body of the Democratic Party of Japan, said it was best for Hori "to step down voluntarily," hinting that unless Hori, who is also home affairs minister, resigns, the DPJ might submit a censure motion against him in the chamber.
Officials from both the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party also indicated that Hori would face a severe grilling in the Upper House.
The comments came on the heels of an extraordinary meeting of 46 prefectural police chiefs Saturday during which National Police Agency officials reiterated the need for visible efforts to help allay public criticism of the police. after yet another spate of scandalous behavior.
Most serious in the public's view was the discovery that a senior NPA official conducted only a cursory inspection of the Niigata Prefectural Police on a trip that ended with he and the police chief playing mah-jongg at a hot springs inn as the case of a woman who had been missing and confined in a room for nearly a decade began to come to light.
Although NPA chief Setsuo Tanaka himself has been one of those reprimanded in recent days, public distrust of the police and the public safety commission is still seen simmering.
To contain such criticism, Obuchi has pledged to conduct sweeping reforms of the police system and the safety commission.