Diet approves 25-day extension to Dec. 25

TOKYO, Nov. 28 Kyodo - The plenary session of the House of Representatives approved Friday an
extension of the current session for 25 days through Dec. 25 as the ruling
parties seek passage of an antiterrorism refueling bill and a bill to support
the banking sector.
The extension came on the strength of the lower house majority held by the
ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and the New Komeito party.
Earlier Friday, three opposition parties decided to agree to hold a vote in the
opposition-dominated House of Councillors during the extended session on a bill
to support the banking sector, lawmakers said.
Secretaries general of the Democratic Party of Japan, the Social Democratic
Party and the People's New Party met at a Tokyo hotel, where the DPJ's Yukio
Hatoyama said his party has reversed its position of effectively blocking the
bill's passage by withholding a vote on it in the upper house.
With the agreement, the bill to inject public funds into financial institutions
to bolster their capital bases is now likely to be passed by the end of this
year.
In the meeting, PNP Secretary General Hisaoki Kamei asserted that the
opposition parties should vote on the financial bill and the refueling bill on
the premise that the lower house start deliberations on a bill to freeze the
planned sale of state-owned shares in companies under Japan Post Holdings Co.,
they said.
Hatoyama expressed understanding of Kamei's assertion, they said.
The three agreed that it is natural for the three parties to vote on the
financial bill within the extended session if at least some deliberations are
held on the issue, they said.
Regarding a package of stimulus measures that the DPJ plans to submit to the
upper house, the three decided to seek to submit the package jointly by holding
discussions on the matter, they said.
The Japanese Communist Party, another opposition party, is strongly opposed to
the financial bill.
==Kyodo