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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

LDP and Komei force Diet term to be extended for two months

The ruling Liberal Democratic and Komei parties used their majority in the House of Representatives plenary session on June 17 to approve a motion to extend 55 days the current ordinary session, which is expiring on June 19, to be extended for 55 days to August 13.

The Japanese Communist Party, the Democratic Party of Japan, and the Social Democratic Party opposed the extension.

Speaking on behalf of the JCP, Kokuta Keiji criticized the extension as insulting parliamentary procedure and the sovereign people.

It is extraordinary that the extended period is more than one-third of a fixed 150-day term for an ordinary session. Japan's Diet makes it a rule to scrap pending bills that are not finished during the term.

JCP Chair Shii Kazuo at a news conference later in the day protested against the extension stating that it is intolerable to extend the term to enact bills to privatize postal services the harm of which has become clear in Diet discussions.

He stated that the JCP, together with the public, will make efforts to foil postal privatization, the adverse revision of nursing care insurance system, and the law related to the disabled. -- Akahata June 18, 2005