Abe May Cancel European Trip to Focus on Foreign Workers Bill

November 26, 2018

Tokyo--Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may cancel his trip to Britain and the Netherlands planned early next month, in order to focus on parliamentary debates on a bill for enabling Japan to accept more foreign workers, government sources said Monday.

In a tour from Thursday, Abe was initially considering going to the two European nations after attending a summit of the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies in Argentina from Friday and visiting two other South American countries--Uruguay and Paraguay.

In Britain and the Netherlands, Abe was hoping to discuss economic and other issues with leaders of the two nations.

Abe is now planning to cut short the tour by three days and return home on Dec. 4, the sources said.

The Abe administration hopes that the bill to revise the immigration control law will be enacted during the ongoing extraordinary Diet session, which is scheduled to end on Dec. 10.

The Diet schedule is behind the prime minister's plan to shorten the trip, a government official said.

The immigration control law amendment is the most important bill for the Abe government in the current Diet session while the opposition camp is trying to block its enactment during the ongoing session. Jiji Press