Japan Diet Likely to Pass Work Style Reform Bill on Friday

June 28, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's ruling camp was to take a vote on a work style reform bill at a House of Councillors committee on Thursday in a bid to have the Diet, the country's parliament, pass the legislation at an Upper House plenary meeting as early as Friday.

The Health, Welfare and Labor Committee was expected to pass the bill Thursday afternoon by a majority vote with support mainly from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, Komeito, as well as opposition Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party).

The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has placed top priority on enacting the bill during the ongoing Diet session, which has been extended by 32 days through July 22.

The Democratic Party for the People, the largest opposition force in the Upper House, was considering allowing the committee to vote on the bill, sources familiar with the situation said.

By contrast, the major opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and three other parties submitted a motion on Thursday to censure Dai Shimamura, chairman of the committee, in order to prevent the committee from passing the bill.

The motion claims that discussions on the bill have been insufficient.

As the largest opposition party does not support the motion, the ruling camp has no plan to put it to a vote at a plenary session, the sources said.

After discussing what to do with the motion at the steering committee of the upper chamber, the ruling camp was to take a vote on the bill at the labor committee.

The bill to revise the labor standards and other relevant laws is designed to introduce a compulsory cap on overtime hours and exempt high-paid highly skilled employees from work hour regulations.

The bill cleared the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, at the end of May.

Meanwhile, the ruling bloc also aims to have the Diet enact a bill on Friday with Upper House approval to implement a revised Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement among Japan and 10 other countries, excluding the United States. The Lower House passed the bill in late May.

A bill to ratify the TPP was adopted by the Diet earlier this month. Jiji Press