|
On January 11, a meeting was held between senior members from the DPJ administration and the party at the Prime Minister’s Office. The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano from the government side, and Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa, Acting Secretary General Azuma Koshiishi and Diet Affairs Committee Chair Kenji Yamaoka for the party. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries Yorihisa Matsuno and Koji Matsui also attended as observers. The meeting lasted for approximately one hour.
According to remarks made by Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirano to reporters following the meeting, summaries of the various pieces of legislation which the administration intends to submit to the Diet during the upcoming ordinary Diet session, an explanation of the main agenda for the session, and the way in which Diet affairs would be handled were each presented and discussed. It was also decided that meetings between senior members of the government and the administration would be held on a regular basis, to take place once a week.
During the meeting, Prime Minister Hatoyama called for a second supplementary budget for the current fiscal year and the budget for the next fiscal year to be passed by the Diet as speedily as possible, considering current economic trends. He also explained events leading to the appointment of Kan as Minister of Finance following the resignation of Hirohisa Fujii from that post. In addition, he revealed that in order to further establish political control of the administration, he intended to announce in a Cabinet meeting to be held January 12 that the government would prepare legislation aiming to increase the numbers of Vice Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries.
The proposed legislative revision would increase the number of Vice Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries by 15, enabling approximately 90 Diet members to be given positions within the administration. Secretary General Ozawa also agreed with the view that the party should work to have this legislation passed, with the decision as to when to submit it determined in conjunction with the timing of the submission of an amendment to the Diet Law, which is currently being pursued by the party with a view to invigorating Diet debate.
In view of economic conditions, Ozawa called on the government to ensure that a system was in place to ensure speedy implementation of the legislation after it had been passed by the Diet.
|
.jpg)
