TOKYO, May 17 (Xinhua) -- Six Japanese opposition parties submitted a joint motion to the lower house of parliament on Friday calling for lawmaker Hodaka Maruyama to resign for a controversial remarks he made about Japan using war to regain control over islands central to a territorial spat with Russia.
Maruyama was expelled from the Japan Innovation Party on Tuesday, but has refused to give up his seat as a lawmaker in parliament's lower chamber.
The opposition parties seeking Maruyama's resignation have also sought the support of the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to support the motion, which states Maruyama has "tarnished the authority and the integrity of the Diet as a whole."
The joint push to remove Maruyama from the lower house, follows remarks the 35-year-old made on Saturday as he joined a group of former residents of Kunashir (or Kunashiri) Island off Hokkaido from May 10 through 13 under a Japan-Russia visa-free exchange program.
According to the head of the group of former residents, Maruyama asked him while drunk, "Do you think there is any alternative to war to recover the islands?"
The head of the group dismissed the remarks, and Maruyama officially retracted the comments on Monday amid stern condemnation from Russia.
Following a Japan Innovation Party committee meeting convened on Tuesday at its headquarters in Osaka, the committee unanimously decided to expel Maruyama.
The committee said Maruyama's remarks had led to public mistrust.
Japan's top government spokesperson, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, slammed Maruyama's remarks as being "extremely regrettable", adding that Tokyo remained committed to resolving the territorial dispute with Moscow through diplomatic means.
The islands at the center of the dispute between Tokyo and Moscow are known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia.
The decades-old territorial spat has prevented the two countries from signing a post-World War II peace treaty and hindered diplomatic and trade relations between the two countries.
Both sides have, however, provisionally agreed to discuss furthering joint economic activities on the islands and Abe has made it one of his priorities as leader to continue to strive to resolve the territorial issue and sign a peace treaty.
