Tag: Asia

Ruling bloc and government officials are planning to extend the current Diet session beyond 19 June, possibly until early August, to enable the passage of key bills, sources at the ruling parties and the government said Wednesday [29 May]. Of the four key sets of bills the ruling bloc and government initially hoped to enact, officials are now planning to give top priority to one to revise the Health Insurance Law, critical for financing next fiscal year’s budget, and the postal reform bills that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is eager to see passed, the sources said.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Tuesday he was confident of getting a postal services deregulation package passed in the Diet despite opposition from many lawmakers in both the ruling and opposition camps, Kyodo News agency reported. ‘Now almost all oppose them, but almost all will support them soon,’ Koizumi said in an address at a ceremony to mark the merger of the Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) and the Japan Federation of Employers Associations (Nikkeiren), into the Japan Business Federation (JBF).