Tokyo, Sept. 25 (Jiji Press)–The upcoming extraordinary session of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, is set to run for 69 days from Oct. 5 until Dec. 12, it was learned Friday. Yoshihiko Isozaki, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s Diet affairs chief in the Senate, the upper chamber previously called the House of Councillors, informed his counterpart at the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Yoshitaka Saito, of the schedule at their meeting the same day. Key agenda items in the session will include bills for a temporary consumption tax cut on food and a reduction in seats of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber. Isozaki also conveyed the LDP’s wish to appoint lawmakers involved in a slush fund scandal as chairs or the ruling party’s chiefs at standing or special committees of the upper chamber. “We cannot allow any lawmaker who has not undergone an election (since the scandal) to be appointed chair of a committee at this point,” Saito said while showing some understanding of other personnel changes. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
