After his party earlier refused the request, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to an opposition demand for him to attend an ad hoc parliamentary committee session to address allegations of favoritism, the Liberal Democratic Party said Thursday.
"After I told the prime minister we had refused, he said he is willing to appear at the Diet himself and give an explanation," LDP Diet Affairs Committee Chairman Wataru Takeshita told reporters, adding that the session is likely to take place next week or later.
But Takeshita indicated the LDP will agree to hold the budget committee session only if ruling party lawmakers are allowed more speaking time than opposition lawmakers.
Earlier Thursday, Takeshita conveyed the LDP's refusal in a meeting with Kazunori Yamanoi, his counterpart from the main opposition Democratic Party, which made the request.
Lawmakers held parliamentary sessions on Monday to discuss the favoritism allegations, but Abe was abroad visiting several European countries, prompting the Democratic Party to propose holding another parliamentary committee session with Abe in attendance.
During Monday's sessions, former top education ministry bureaucrat Kihei Maekawa reiterated that the prime minister's office was involved in the approval process for a new veterinary school by the Kake Educational Institution in a government-designated special economic zone.
Kotaro Kake, chairman of Kake Educational Institution, is a close friend of the prime minister.
Maekawa, former vice minister of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, did not offer fresh evidence related to the matter. Government officials, including Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda, denied Maekawa's claims during the sessions.
Abe has come under fire over suspicions he used his influence to secure the approval of Japan's first department of veterinary medicine in half a century in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, western Japan.
Such suspicions have grown since documents were revealed indicating that officials of the Cabinet Office, which oversees special economic zones, pressured the education ministry ahead of the selection of Kake.
The scandal has hit the Abe Cabinet's support ratings and contributed to the LDP's crushing defeat in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election this month.
Parliament is not currently sitting, the most recent ordinary session having ended on June 18.
