Gov't asks opposition for support in passing bills before Diet session ends

Politics Aug. 21, 2012 - 06:48AM JST ( 1 )

TOKYO —

Senior officials of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) on Monday met with their counterparts from the opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and New Komeito Party to urge them to cooperate in passing key bills before the current session of the Diet ends on Sept 8.

The DPJ wants the opposition to agree to enact bills to issue deficit-covering bonds and reform the electoral system.

The electoral reform bill, if enacted, would reduce the number of seats in the lower house chosen by proportional representation by 40, as well as cut the number of single-seat constituencies by five. The LDP has also proposed a bill of its own to cut five single-seat constituencies in the lower house in order to ensure more equal representation. At present, some sparsely populated rural electorates are better represented than urban areas.

Japan Today