The planned extension is intended to secure time for enacting a controversial anticonspiracy bill calling for criminalizing planning and preparing acts of terrorism and other serious offenses before they are committed.

To avoid suffering prolonged attacks from opposition parties over a dubious university faculty plan, behind which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "will" allegedly existed, however, the government and the ruling camp hope to limit the extension to only about 10 days, the sources said.

The opposition camp, which aims to kill the bill out of concern that it may lead to a surveillance society, plan to block the legislation from being debated and put to a vote by employing such tactics as submitting a censure motion against Justice Minister Katsutoshi Kaneda and a no-confidence motion against Abe's cabinet.

The amendment bill to the organized crime punishment law had been debated for some 30 hours at a committee of the House of Representatives, excluding question-and-answer sessions with unsworn witnesses, before being voted for at a Lower House plenary session late last month. But the House of Councillors, the upper chamber, has so far discussed the bill for only 16 hours.

Given the tight Upper House committee meeting schedule, any suspension of deliberations is expected to make it difficult for the anticonspiracy bill to be enacted by the currently set end of the Diet session.

As a bill to revise the Penal Code to impose tougher penalties for sex crimes, which cleared the Lower House on Thursday, is also scheduled to be discussed in the Upper House, the government and the ruling camp find it inevitable to extend the Diet session in order to ensure the enactment of the anticonspiracy legislation, which they say is necessary toward the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

At the same time, Abe's administration is hoping to avoid a major extension as it is now on the defensive regarding the issue of the new university faculty plan by a school operator headed by a friend of Abe. The education ministry recently decided to reinvestigate allegations that documents citing Abe's will behind the plan by the Kake Educational Institution to establish the department of veterinary medicine in a national strategic special zone in western Japan do exist.

The major opposition Democratic Party is demanding the ministry report the outcome of the reinvestigation by Monday, aiming to grill the government more harshly on the scandal.

Meanwhile, the Abe administration will aim to enact the anticonspiracy bill and the Penal Code amendment before the campaign period for the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election starts on June 23. (Jiji Press)