ニュース 2016/01/15 Okada: “Working long hours is a bad practice in Japan. We need to totally transform the way that we work.” On January 15, DPJ President Katsuya Okada held his regular press conference at party headquarters. Okada commented on the fact that a report on general election reform had been submitted to the Speaker of the House of Representatives on January 14, stating, “Reducing the number of seats [in the lower house] by 10 is not sufficient, but the overall thrust of the report is reasonable. I have listened to the opinions of DPJ Diet members and of the prefectures where Diet seats are scheduled to be reduced. I would like to us decide our stance in the DPJ Political Reform Headquarters. I urge Prime Minister Abe, as President of the LDP, to create a consensus within his party with a view to supporting the recommendations of the report.” Okada also commented on the government proposal to reform the Labor Standards Act, saying, “Working long hours is a deeply-rooted bad practice, both for the Japanese economy and for the way that we work. The actual figures are not visible: there is hidden overtime. This issue is a barrier to child-rearing and balancing family life with your career, and also prevents people from taking care of elderly parents. If we do not totally change working practices, we will not be able to find a real solution to this issue. The DPJ will submit a counterproposal to the Diet. We must regulate this problem by legal means.”