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On May 11, DPJ Senior Vice Secretary General Yoshimitsu Takashima held his regular press conference inside the Diet building, commenting on the final part of the Diet session.
Takashima said that 4 important pieces of legislation are now under discussion in the House of Representatives. He said, “In order that they can all pass the Diet, I would like us to send them to the House of Councillors as soon as possible.” Regarding the possibility of an extension to the Diet session, he stated, “The schedule is now getting extremely tight, so I would like the House of Councillors to make every effort to pass the legislation. If all possible efforts are made moving toward the end of the Diet session, and there is still legislation remaining at that stage, then we will need to make a definite decision as to whether to extend the session in order to pass the legislation, but we have not yet reached that stage.”
Furthermore, regarding the significance of reaching a decision on Futenma by the end of May, Takashima stated, “The media have their way of looking at things, and Prime Minister Hatoyama also has feelings on the matter, but as I [have said] previously, what is ultimately important is that the government clearly decide on a proposal and create a situation wherein they take responsibility for gaining the agreement of the local community and the US government. However, the form that agreement takes is a subject for negotiation, and so if negotiations are still ongoing at the end of May, I don’t see any reason for stopping part-way through on the way toward this goal.”
Takashima added, “However, if the government cannot decide on any proposal, and the chance of negotiations [succeeding] is 0%, it will not be possible [for the administration] to move in a single direction, and in this case I think things will be extremely difficult. However, the government are now working hard to make a final decision regarding their proposal, and so I think that, having made that decision, they should take time and effort to call for agreement.”
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