The Lower House Budget Committee decided by a majority vote on Thursday to summon a former accountant of the Liberal Democratic Party’s now-defunct Abe faction for parliamentary questioning — ending a stalemate between the LDP and opposition parties, the latter of which had conditioned the start of budget deliberations on the inquiry.
All opposition parties voted in favor of summoning Junichiro Matsumoto, 77, who has been sentenced to three years in jail, and been suspended for five years, for his role in the LDP’s slush fund scandal.
Thursday's vote marked the first time in over half a century that an unsworn witness has been summoned by the Budget Committee without a unanimous vote.
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