Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Dec. 4 (Koichi Ueda) Seventy percent of voters say former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should explain at an open hearing in the Diet the scandal over luxury banquets held for his supporters, an Asahi Shimbun survey showed. Twenty-three percent of respondents in the Dec. 19-20 telephone survey said Abe does not need to explain the matter in an open hearing. A support group headed by Abe’s senior state-paid aide covered part of the costs for the hotel banquets that were held on the eve of annual cherry blossom viewing events hosted by Abe in the capital. The payments were not reported, and Tokyo prosecutors are investigating the matter as a possible violation of the Political Fund Control Law.