[Shadow Kira01]

Emperor's exceptional meeting with Chinese VP stirs controversy

''If we can still call it off now, we should,'' said Watanabe, adding that countries should always be treated equally regardless of their size, economic power or political power.

''There are many people, even within the Democratic Party of Japan, who regard it as a poor decision,'' Watanabe said, emphasizing that the meeting should kept to a one-time exception if it cannot be canceled.

Members of the two other parties in the ruling coalition -- the Social Democratic Party and the People's New Party -- also spoke out against the hastily arranged meeting.

''It shouldn't be granted even as an exception,'' SDP lawmaker Tomoko Abe said on the same program, while PNP lawmaker Akiko Kamei said she shared the Imperial Household Agency's concern over political manipulation of the throne.

Nobutaka Machimura, a former chief Cabinet secretary and a member of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party, also said when he was asked to arrange a similar meeting by an ambassador he knew, he turned the request down ''according to the rules.''