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On July 22, DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada and Diet Affairs Chair Jun Azumi met with the secretaries general and Diet affairs chiefs of the LDP and Komeito inside the Diet.
Following the meeting, Okada told reporters that he had conveyed the content of his press conference on July 21 to the LDP and Komeito. In the press conference he had expressed his apologies for the over-optimistic estimates set forth in the party Manifesto for the 2009 general election, some of which still had not been realized. He said that following this explanation, he had renewed his request for opposition support in enacting legislation for special measures regarding the issuing of government bonds. Okada went on to say that a review of the policies of implementing a child allowance and making highway tolls free had been included in the three-party agreement between the policy research chiefs of the three parties and so the opposition parties had expressed the opinion that “a step forward had been taken in paving the way toward establishing part of the environment [for cooperation].”
With regard to the child allowance, Okada said that if the working levels talks do not come to a successful conclusion, it will be necessary to undertake discussions at the policy research chief/secretary general level. However, he stated that reaching an agreement at working level was desirable and he would like to wait and see what the outcome of the talks would be.
“Making high school tuition fees free in practice” and a “system of assistance for individual agricultural households” are among policies which the LDP is calling on the DPJ to abandon, but Okada reported he had said the budget for these measures had already been allocated, and so these were not issues to be discussed for this fiscal year, but that he would not reject the possibility of discussions between the parties in future years. However, he stated, “Holding discussions is fine, but I don’t consider there is much of a prospect of substantial changes in content.”
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