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On the morning of January 10, the Diet affairs chiefs of the ruling and opposition parties met inside the Diet building and agreed to the ruling party proposal that the regular Diet session should be convened on January 24. The session is scheduled to last for 150 days, until June 22. Diet Affairs Committee Chair Jin Matsubara attended the meeting on behalf of the DPJ.
Following the meeting, Matsubara commented, “I basically agreed. The ruling party side said that they would engage in thorough debate, and I would like them to truly engage in such discussion. That is the most important point at stake, and with that proviso I agreed to the proposal.” He added that he had repeatedly urged the ruling parties not to engage in the kind of strong-armed Diet administration as they used during the debate on the special secrets protection legislation in the extraordinary Diet session at the end of last year.
From this perspective, Matsubara said that during the meeting, he had called for the following, (1) convening of the Committee on Budget in the House of Representatives for hearings while the Diet is in recess, something that the committee Chair, the LDP’s Yamamoto, had twice stated would be done during the previous Diet session, (2) to continue to convene the Special Committee on the NSC for debate, (3) establish a Special Committee to debate issues related to the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty) negotiations that are now reaching a crucial stage.
With regard to the proposed Special Committee on the TPP, Matsubara said, “It will be beneficial to the actual TPP negotiations for a Special Committee in the Diet to hold discussions regarding agricultural products and automobiles.”
Matsubara stated that comments to the effect that “we would definitely like to push forward” with Diet reform had been made by the opposition side, and added, “The LDP recognizes that they have a responsibility as the party of government to proceed [with such reform].” He continued, “I stated that as a part of Diet reform the number of special committees should be limited to ten. The actual number of times that each special committee was convened and the amount of discussion held during the past year should be checked, including for those special committees which currently have no relevant business for discussion. Rather than just simply continuing to increase the number of Committee Chairs, a scrap and build strategy should be implemented, ensuring that truly essential Committees are included, and public understanding obtained for this strategy. I said that this was ‘the keystone’ of Diet reform.”
Matsubara continued: “The DPJ will ride through this Diet session using its traditional mottos of ‘engaging in hands-on management’, ‘issuing counterproposals’ and ‘calling for reform’. The ‘Abe Express” is out of control. The task invested in the DPJ by the people, as the main opposition party, is to put a stop to this runaway train. We must make efforts to return it to normal operating speed. It is from this perspective that we will engage in the session.”
Asked by a reporter for his comments on movements by the ruling coalition to make damaging changes to the labour law during the forthcoming Diet session, Matsubara said: “The DPJ’s stance is to respect the position of working men and women.” He went on to say, “If wealth disparities are fixed in place this will be extremely regrettable. Japan is basically a nation whose only resources are her people. A society in which wealth disparities are fixed, and passed down from parent to child will lead to a loss in Japan’s vitality. The direction taken by the Abe administration, to ‘make the strong still stronger’ is problematic due to the fact that it will result in Japan losing her greatest resource, which is human vitality.” Matsubara added, “The DPJ will continue to make efforts to equalize such wealth disparities. As President Kaieda has been saying, we will thoroughly enhance the labour sector, not simply from the perspective of social security and social welfare, but also from that of national dynamism.”
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