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2024 September 18 - 24 TOP3 [POLITICS]

Opposition parties agree to demand sufficient Diet discussions with new Cabinet

Diet affairs chiefs of the Japanese Communist Party and three other opposition parties on September 19 met in the Diet building and agreed to push the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to hold thorough discussions regarding new Cabinet policies at both chambers’ plenary and budget committee meetings.

The meeting of the opposition parties’ Diet affairs chiefs took place to discuss a response to the LDP-led government decision to convene an extraordinary Diet session on October 1.

The four parties, including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, confirmed that they will oppose the LDP leadership candidates’ plan to dissolve the House of Representatives to hold a general election immediately after the nomination of the newly-elected LDP president as prime minister.

JCP Diet Policy Commission Chair Kokuta Keiji stated that it is legitimate to call for holding sufficient discussions in Diet meetings such as Budget Committee meetings, and stressed, “At least 30 days will be necessary to hold thorough discussions in the coming extraordinary session of the Diet.”

Other items agreed upon by the four parties were: to call 72 LDP lawmakers (43 Lower House members and 29 Upper House members) involved in the slush-fund scandal to attend the Diet’s Deliberative Council on Political Ethics; to urge the LDP to reinvestigate its organizational ties with the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (the former Unification Church, aka. the Moonies) and report to the Diet on the results; and to work swiftly to enact new legislation aimed at providing relief to victims who had been forced to undergo eugenic sterilization under the former Eugenic Protection Law (1948-1996).