Japan Press Weekly

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2012 April 25 - May 8 [POLITICS]

Lower House approves launching of special committee on ‘integrated reform’

The House of Representatives on April 26 approved to set up a special committee on an “integrated reform” of social services and the tax system, including a consumption tax hike, with the support of all political parties except the Japanese Communist and Social Democratic parties.

At a Lower House Steering Committee meeting held prior to the approval, JCP lawmaker Sasaki Kensho stressed that launching the special committee is “too forceful and overly hasty,” criticizing the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties for imposing their closed door agreement on other parties without allowing a thorough Diet discussion on the purpose and agenda of the committee.

Ruling parties are calling for the committee to discuss 11 bills, but have failed to reach consensus on the proposal with opposition parties.

Sasaki pointed out that these 11 bills are related to crucial issues such as taxation, social services, pension, and child rearing, and that these issues have to be thoroughly and carefully discussed in the Diet.

The JCP representative said that the setting up of the special committee is at odds with the Constitution and the Diet Act, both of which require committees to have a sufficient deliberation on issues in their specialized field.

Pointing out that the parliament has never had just one committee to discuss taxation and other crucial agenda items, Sasaki stated that the parties pushing for the formation of the committee should never be allowed to pass the agreement, which they reached behind closed doors, through the Diet.

In the current Diet session, the DPJ, LDP, and Komei Party made a backroom deal on bills to revise the Worker Dispatch Law, revise the postal service privatization law, and decrease support for disabled persons, and had their agreement pass though the Diet after discussions of only 3 hours or so.