Editorial: Komeito opposes move to loosen Diet calling of unsworn witnesses
February 2 , 2025
On January 30, the House of Representatives passed a motion submitted by Jun Azumi, a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan who chairs the chamber’s budget committee. The motion enables the committee to summon an unsworn witness with a simple majority of votes. As this motion transgresses a longstanding legislative precedent requiring unanimous approval to issue a summons, Komeito expressed its opposition by vacating the chamber.Other than the articles stipulated in the constitution and Diet Law, both houses have for decades been given autonomy in their respective operations, a testament to the basic decency of those representing the highest organ of state power. The budget committee decision, however, openly defies nonpartisan precedence faithly followed over the past 51 years.
Detractors of Komeito’s decision say it is an effort to protect the Liberal Democratic Party and the former faction led by Shinzo Abe over its illicit political funding issues. For the record, Komeito has never once sheltered the LDP regarding its problems with monied politics. Indeed, it has served as a central agent in strengthening regulations on funding practices over the years, more so than any other political party. As for the latest scandal, Komeito has repeatedly pressured the LDP to police and reform itself, and it will continue to do so until meaningful change ensues.
The fact is, Komeito favors the summoning of unsworn witnesses in order to get to the bottom of the LDP fiasco. Komeito takes issue with the way in which witnesses will be summoned. The precedence on Diet committee operations adopted by lawmakers regardless of political affiliation since the 1970s should not be so readily abandoned.
According to Komeito Secretary General Makoto Nishida, the need to retain the principle of unanimous consent over majority vote is clear: committee members must engage in a thorough exchange of views to call witnesses to the Diet and safeguard their human rights by preventing individuals from testifying against themselves, for example. It is this principle, said Nishida, that must be preserved and protected.
