Ruling parties use their majority to extend Diet session

The three ruling parties (the Liberal Democratic, Komei, and Conservative parties) at the Lower House plenary session on June 19 forcibly decided on a 42-day extension of the Diet session,which should have been wrapped up that day.

Prior to the plenary session, Japanese Communist Party representative Kodama Kenji at a House of Representatives Steering Committee meeting criticized the government and the ruling parties for intending to extend the Diet session to enact four bad bills (the contingency bills, the bill to revise the medical insurance system, personal information protection bills, and postal service-related bills).

The JCP, Social Democratic, and Liberal parties, in protest against the intention to prolong the Diet session, were absent from the plenary session for the vote. The Democratic Party attended the session but voted against the extension.

JCP Chair Shii Kazuo at a news conference that day denounced the forced extension of the Diet session. He said the JCP will continue to push the bills to be withdrawn without a break, while Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro desperately tries to railroad the bills through the extended-session. (end)