Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will instruct top bureaucrats today to cut dubious ties with politicians in light of recent problems involving the Foreign Ministry, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Sunday.
Meanwhile, Taku Yamasaki, secretary general of the dominant Liberal Democratic Party, said he was willing the same day to conditionally accept an opposition call for senior LDP lawmaker Muneo Suzuki, among others, to be summoned as unsworn witnesses to the House of Representatives Budget Committee over a recent feud that resulted in the sacking of the foreign minister and her top deputy.
Abe, speaking on a TV talk show, said Koizumi will tell a meeting of his vice ministers today that "unreasonable pressure" from politicians will have to be eliminated. The vice ministers are the top bureaucrats at the government's ministries. and agencies.