DPJ pulls a power play in Diet

The ruling coalition led by the Democratic Party of Japan used its overwhelming Lower House majority Thursday to ram through a bill urging financial institutions to ease repayment terms for struggling customers.

The use of steamrolling tactics by the Hatoyama administration prompted unflattering comparisons to its Liberal Democratic Party predecessors, two months after the DPJ was swept to power on a promise to change the way politics are conducted.

The bill calls on financial institutions to be more responsive to requests from small business and individuals with home loans to reduce the repayment burden.

At a directors' meeting of the Lower House Financial Affairs Committee, DPJ members indicated they wanted a vote on the bill immediately after experts were called Thursday to provide opinions.

Opposition party members said they could not agree to the deliberations with a vote scheduled beforehand and boycotted Thursday's committee session.

After the experts were questioned, a majority of committee members passed the bill despite the absence of members from the LDP and New Komeito.

The bill then went to the Lower House plenary session where it was expected to pass late at night.

The opposition parties were incensed at the strong-arm tactics and submitted resolutions to the Lower House seeking the dismissal of Koichiro Genba as chairman of the Financial Affairs Committee and Takeaki Matsumoto as chairman of the Rules and Administration Committee. Those resolutions will likely be defeated in the DPJ-controlled chamber.

Serious deliberations on the bill only began Wednesday and Genba admitted it was rushed through committee.

"I wanted to have more deliberations, but I was told that today was the time limit," Genba told reporters after the committee vote. "It is regrettable, but I had to make a very difficult decision."

An LDP lawmaker said of the DPJ, "It is acting based on the strength of numbers and not considering others."

A Japanese Communist Party member said "the DPJ became just like the LDP" as soon as it took power.

Shizuka Kamei, head of the People's New Party and state minister in charge of financial services, was a strong backer of the bill and argued it was needed to help small businesses facing difficulties in the stagnant economy.

"We had to pass the bill as soon as possible," Kamei said. "The opposition parties were wrong not to cooperate."

While the bill will not oblige financial institutions to grant moratoriums on repayment, the Financial Services Agency will ask them to submit reports on the extent to which moratoriums have been granted in order to check the effectiveness of the policy.

The bill was steamrolled through the Lower House partly because the government wants to avoid extending the current Diet session past its scheduled close on Nov. 30.

It wants Cabinet ministers to concentrate on the budget compilation process in order to formulate the budget by the end of the year.

The prime minister, citing the difficult economic circumstances, told reporters he felt ramming the bill through "was unavoidable."

"It was done with the feeling of wanting to do something to help the public as soon as possible," he added.

The government had already submitted 12 bills to the Diet session, making it difficult to pass all within the tight schedule.

An added problem arose when the Cabinet submitted the name of a former vice minister of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare as head of the National Personnel Authority.

The opposition parties slammed the DPJ for going against its pledge to end the practice of amakudari, or having government bureaucrats take on lucrative jobs after retirement.

The criticism delayed deliberations by a week.(IHT/Asahi: November 20,2009)