The communications ministry requested Tuesday that all Japanese broadcasters investigate whether they are complying with foreign ownership rules after Fuji Media Holdings Inc. said it may have been in breach in the past.

The development came as satellite broadcaster Tohokushinsha Film Corp., where Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's eldest son Seigo works, is set to have its license for a channel revoked in May after admitting it violated a rule under the law that requires less than 20 percent of voting rights in a broadcaster be controlled by foreign shareholders.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications filed the request with 576 broadcasters, including TV and radio stations and holding companies, about their compliance with the broadcast law and asked them to reply by April 30.

The action came after Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Ryota Takeda said earlier Tuesday that his ministry will send documents to request all certified broadcast holding companies and basic broadcasters to confirm their status of compliance.

Fuji Media Holdings, the parent of Fuji Television Network Inc., said Monday it made errors in calculating voting rights of its shareholders and mistakenly added a share of 0.002 percent to 0.004 percent held by a subsidiary between 2012 and 2014.

The company said it became aware of the possible foreign ownership violation in 2014, but did not make public the error, believing the correction involved was "minor."

The company is recalculating voting rights for the period when the discovery was made to determine whether foreign shareholders held 20 percent or more of the company, constituting a violation of the broadcasting law.

It said voting rights owned by foreigners stood below 20 percent as of September 2014 and have been under the threshold since.

Takeda said he has instructed ministry officials to thoroughly investigate the Fuji Media Holdings case. He declined to comment on whether the ministry will revoke its license, saying, "We have yet to grasp the facts."

Japan's main opposition party demanded Fuji Media Holdings' executives, including its president, be summoned to parliament as witnesses.

"We cannot overlook" it if a law violation has been ignored, Jun Azumi, Diet affairs chief of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, told reporters after filing the request to summon the executives with Hiroshi Moriyama, his counterpart at the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

==Kyodo

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