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On December 2, DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada held a press conference at party headquarters. He looked back over the Diet session now drawing to a close, saying, “This Diet session leaves many unresolved challenges behind it. We used an enormous amount of time and energy in order to pass the [supplementary] budget.”
Okada explained, “With the over-riding priority being to ensure that [the supplementary budget] was sent to the House of Councillors after following the proper procedures in the House of Representatives, the Prime Minister and other Cabinet members spent a great deal of time on budget debate.” He went on: “But in fact, rather than budgetary debate, a whole variety of issues arose, and so a great deal of energy was spent dealing with non-budget matters.” Okada also pointed out that there had been many exchanges that had lessened the authority of the Diet itself, saying “I made this point on several occasions, even in the meeting between the Secretaries General of the various parties.”
Okada also said that voters had severely criticised the situation in the Diet, making comments such as, “What is the Diet doing?” “Isn’t this a waste of taxpayers’ money?” “What on earth are they debating about?” He also pointed out, “Remarks addressed to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet members and even the way in which the Prime Minister was addressed on occasion, made one wonder whether Japan’s national interest was in fact being damaged.”
Considering these points, Okada expressed the opinion that “From the perspective of ensuring that Japanese democracy has substance, I felt once again that the ruling and opposition parties need to open up to each other and engage in frank discussions about the way in which Diet affairs should be conducted in future.”
Okada also stated that although it had taken a considerably amount of time, a supplementary budget that would have a dramatic effect on the lives of the Japanese people had been passed. He said that the DPJ had intended for budget-related legislation to be debated following this, but that although such legislation had been amended through discussions between the ruling and opposition parties and then approved by the House of Representatives before being sent to the House of Councillors, “many bills ended up without even being debated in the House of Councillors, and this is extremely regrettable.”
Okada criticised the censure motions submitted by the opposition, saying, “The word censure comes first and so this might sound like a worthwhile procedure, but in fact it is rejection of debate.” He added, “In regard to the fact that such rejection of debate has taken place without proper foundation, I would like to ask the Japanese people whether this is really how they want things to be. I would also like once more to ask the opposition parties to cooperate with us in ensuring that the next Diet session is one that has more “passionate debate”.
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