Abe to remove controversial plan from work style reform

March 1, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's government will submit work style reform bills to the Diet, the country's parliament, by removing a controversial proposal about the discretionary work system from the legislation, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday.

The move comes as the government has been under fire from not only opposition parties but the ruling camp over the discovery of a number of improper data in a labor ministry survey on the discretionary work system.

The decision by the prime minister is expected to deal a blow to his administration, which had aimed to submit all of the bills, including the proposal to expand the scope of people covered by the discretionary system, to the Diet.

Following the discovery of data flaws, the government plans to start again to figure out how the discretionary system is implemented while giving up on presenting the proposal to expand the system to the ongoing regular Diet session, which is currently set to run until June 20. The government will submit other parts of the work style reform bills, aiming for their early enactment.

Abe, also leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, conveyed these plans at a meeting late Wednesday night with the secretaries-general and policy chiefs of the LDP and its Komeito ally, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga and Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Katsunobu Kato.

Abe apologized to the ruling camp and government officials for causing trouble over the data flaws.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Abe said, "I have issued an instruction that the discretionary work system be fully removed from the work style reform legislation."

"We will discuss the proposed expansion of the discretionary system again after the labor ministry looks into how the system is being implemented at present," Abe said.

"The government hopes to submit bills on three pillars, the introduction of a cap on overtime hours, the realization of equal pay for equal work and the exemption of highly skilled professionals from work-hour regulations, aiming to have them enacted during the current Diet session," he said.

But he did not comment on when the legislation will be submitted to parliament, only saying that the submission will come after the completion of the ruling bloc's procedures and a cabinet decision.

Abe did not mention the timing of submitting a bill on the expansion of the discretionary work system.

However, Komeito Secretary-General Yoshihisa Inoue told reporters, "There is a common understanding that submission during the ongoing Diet session is impossible."

Enacting the work style reform bills, including the expansion of the discretionary system, had been one of the Abe administration's top priorities for the current Diet session.

But the discovery of the data flaws sparked criticism among not only the ruling coalition but also the opposition camp.

After some ruling bloc officials called for the discretionary system to be separated from the bills, Abe saw no choice but to accept the proposal, concluding that their enactment during the current Diet session could be jeopardized if their submission is delayed, informed sources said.

"It is regrettable that the data problem has raised doubts among the public (over the discretionary work system)," Abe said at Wednesday's meeting of the House of Representatives Budget Committee.

"The government as a whole will not be able to make progress unless it precisely grasps the matter," he also said. Jiji Press