Ruling bloc aims for work reform debates at Diet from Fri.

April 26, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's ruling parties agreed Wednesday to start Diet deliberations on a bill to overhaul labor regulations on Friday, although opposition parties are continuing to boycott parliamentary debates.

The agreement was reached at a meeting of senior officials of the Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, Komeito, including LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai and his Komeito counterpart, Yoshihisa Inoue.

The ruling bloc proposed the deliberation schedule at a meeting of the House of Representatives steering committee the same day, but the opposition camp rejected the proposal.

The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe places top priority on the so-called work style reform bill, aiming to realize its enactment during the ongoing Diet session through June 20.

At their meeting, the ruling parties also confirmed a plan to hold intensive debates attended by the prime minister at the budget panels of the two parliamentary chambers on Thursday.

The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and five other opposition parties are expected to be absent from the planned debates, given their current parliamentary boycott to demand that Finance Minister Taro Aso step down over a sexual harassment scandal that involved the ministry's top bureaucrat. Jiji Press