On January 27, a meeting between the Secretaries General and Diet Affairs chiefs of the ruling and opposition parties was held inside the Diet building. DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada and Diet Affairs Committee Chair Jun Azumi attended.

According to Okada’s comments to the press after the meeting, he had reported to the meeting on the circumstances surrounding the efforts made from the end of last year up until January to persuade former DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa to appear before the Deliberative Council on Political Ethics in the House of Representatives. He had then explained that he had not been able to get Ozawa to consent to appear before the Deliberative Council at the start of the Diet session. Following this, Okada said that the other parties, apart from the DPJ, the PNP and the SDP, had called for Ozawa to give sworn testimony before the Diet.

Okada said, “Since sworn testimony is subject to perjury charges, it is extremely weighty, and so it is not possible to consent to it at this stage. I asked for cooperation in calling for [Ozawa’s appearance before the Deliberative Council] through a Diet resolution.”