Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday he "must reflect on" confusion in the Diet as ruling and opposition parties continue to clash over a flurry of political scandals, including favoritism allegations against the premier.

Most of the opposition parties have recently boycotted Diet sessions because, they claim, the government and ruling bloc are reluctant to get to the bottom of the affairs by refusing to summon key figures to testify.

Tetsuro Fukuyama, secretary general of the leading opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, criticized the ruling parties for opening Thursday's session "without taking sincere actions" and urged them to agree with their request.

"It is no wonder the public turn a severe eye on us," Abe told the lower house budget committee.

(Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, front, and Finance Minister Taro Aso)

Abe has been under fire for allegedly swaying his influence when the government gave the green light for his friend to open a new veterinary school in a specially deregulated economic zone.

Criticism has also mounted over the cut-price sale of a piece of state land to a school operator with ties to his wife Akie Abe and relevant government document falsification.

The opposition parties stepped up their offensive after the government accepted the resignation of Junichi Fukuda, the Finance Ministry's top bureaucrat, without reprimanding him over sexual harassment allegations brought against him by female reporters.

The prime minister admitted responsibility for the mess in parliament as a great deal of deliberation time was used for the condemnation of such scandals, rather than policies.

(Moritomo Gakuen, the center of favoritism allegation involving PM Abe)

But he brushed off the possibility of dissolving the House of Representatives for a general election, saying, "I am not thinking of it at all. I can clearly say that."

On Wednesday, Hiroshi Moriyama, Diet affairs chief of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, had said the dissolution of the lower house is "an option" in the event a censure motion is filed against the Abe administration.

The remark was taken as a threat to the opposition parties that did not fare well in last October's general election.

"What is required now is to discuss policies and implement campaign pledges promised last year," Abe added.