Four opposition parties agreed Wednesday to call on Kenshiro Matsunami to resign from the House of Representatives to take responsibility for having a gangster's construction company pay two of his secretaries' salaries.
The Diet affairs chiefs of the Democratic Party of Japan, the Liberal Party, Japanese Communist Party and Social Democratic Party also agreed that if Matsunami refused to step down by the end of the day, they would seek a Diet resolution urging him to do so or demand that the Lower House Budget Committee summon him as an unsworn witness.
Either of those moves would deal another major blow to the ruling coalition, which has been plagued by scandals in recent months.