Photo/Illutration The Science Council of Japan met in Tokyo’s Minato Ward on April 21. (Kazuhiro Nagashima)

The Science Council of Japan is to issue a statement calling on Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to end his months-long refusal to explain his decision to block the appointments of six scholars to the body.

Takaaki Kajita, the council's president, said April 21 the statement would also call on Suga to put things right as he is the only individual empowered to do so.

The draft statement states in part: “As the person who has the responsibility for appointed members of the council, he has not provided a formal response nor any explanation to the council” since the row flared last year.

The council, which makes policy recommendations independent from the government, has 210 seats, but is still short of six members.

“If the current situation continues without a full explanation, we will likely have to conclude it is a violation of the council’s independence,” the statement says. “Nobody but the prime minister, who has the appointing power, can correct the situation.”

Suga is widely believed to have intervened because the six scholars in question had expressed opposition to contentious security legislation enacted in 2015 by Suga's predecessor, Shinzo Abe.

The statement also says that Suga, as prime minister, has an obligation to provide a sound reason for “why each of the recommended candidates was deemed to be unfit to be council member.”

Kajita, responding to government overtures that the council undertake a number of reforms, also proposed some organizational changes.

Shinji Inoue, the state minister in charge of science and technology policy who attended the meeting, said: “We fully understand the members of the council are very concerned about (the matter). But we share the same wish that the council will exercise its function as a national academy. We hope the council will be able to advance its reforms proactively, starting with the things it can.”

With regard to organizational reforms, the council has stated that its current status as a national agency is “appropriate.”

For this reason, it asserts that “it is difficult to find a positive reason to change.”

At the same time, it mentions that there is room for consideration for the council to become an independent organization.

A project team of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party accused the council of being too hesitant to reform and proposed that it become a corporate entity independent of the central government.

The council is expected to discuss these plans until April 22.

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