Japanese Opposition Parties to Submit No-confidence Motion

Japan's four opposition parties agreed Tuesday to jointly submit a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's cabinet over Mori's recent controversial remarks that Japan is a divine nation with the emperor at its center.

Secretaries general of the four parties -- the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the Japanese Communist Party (JCP), the Liberal Party (LP) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) -- agreed to cooperate on the motion during a meeting earlier in the day, officials of the parties said. They will meet in the early afternoon to discuss the issue further.

Mori has been under fire for the "divine nation" remarks he made on May 15. The remarks are for many a disturbing echo of Japan's militarist past, when Japanese troops invaded Asian countries in the name of the emperor.

Opposition parties said Mori's remarks also run counter to the separation of politics and religion as enshrined in Japan's Constitution.

Public disapproval rating for Mori's cabinet jumped above 54 percent in May after his remarks, surveys published Tuesday by two leading Japanese newspapers showed.

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