Japan’s Extra Diet Session May Open on Oct. 24

October 4, 2018

Tokyo- An extraordinary session of the Diet, Japan's parliament, may be convened on Oct. 24, earlier than initially expected, with the scheduling affected by the timing of a visit to China by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, according to informed sources.

Now that the visit, originally envisaged for Oct. 23-25, is likely to be delayed by one to two days on account of the Chinese side, chances are high that the convocation date will be moved up to Oct. 24, said a senior official of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

The government and ruling camp had assumed that the Diet session would be convened on Oct. 26, after Abe returns from China.

If the convocation is pushed back, the schedule of Diet proceedings is expected to be tight because the session needs to be closed by early December to secure sufficient time for work to compile a state budget for fiscal 2019.

Arrangements are therefore being made to have the Diet session convened earlier, possibly before Abe leaves for China, according to the sources.

During the session, the government hopes to achieve the enactment of a fiscal 2018 supplementary budget aimed at speeding up restoration work after recent natural disasters, including a massive earthquake that rocked the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido last month. Jiji Press