LDP leader seeks to pass wartime bills

A top Liberal Democratic Party leader said that he wants to have a set of bills to force Japanese citizens into cooperating in U.S. wars passed through the Lower House by the end of April.

In a Yomiuri Shimbun interview published on March 22, LDP Secretary General Yamasaki Taku stated that the wartime bills must be passed through the House of Representatives before a bill to support postwar reconstruction of Iraq is submitted to the Diet.

Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro already expressed Japan's cooperation in reconstructing Iraq in his phone conversation with U.S. President George W. Bush.

The contingency legislation was submitted to the Diet last year, but were shelved due to widespread public opposition. (end)