Lower house votes down opposition-proposed employment bills+

TOKYO, Dec. 24 Kyodo - The extraordinary Diet session effectively ended business Wednesday after four opposition-proposed bills to address the rapidly deteriorating job market were
rejected at a House of Representatives plenary session on a majority vote by the ruling parties.

Following the move, the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan introduced a
resolution to the lower house to dissolve the Diet for a general election -- a
motion that was voted down in the ruling coalition-controlled chamber but
generated unexpected attention after a prominent governing party lawmaker voted
in favor along with opposition members.
The lawmaker, former administrative reform minister Yoshimi Watanabe of the
Liberal Democratic Party, who was reprimanded by the LDP, said at a news
conference that he does not intend to leave the party or form a new party.
But Watanabe's move could stimulate ''anti-Aso'' sentiment within the party as
the prime minister's popularity ratings are plunging.
DPJ chief Ichiro Ozawa rapped Aso for having the employment bills scrapped.
''Prime Minister Taro Aso has done nothing in the three months since he took
power, while saying he is the man for the economy,'' Ozawa said, adding people
are feeling angry.
Ruling coalition lawmakers said their employment measures are much larger in
scale and will be included in a second supplementary budget to be worked out
during the next Diet session.
Aso held a news conference earlier in the day after the Cabinet approved a
second supplementary budget and a budget for fiscal 2009, and suggested he
would not dissolve the lower house before the budgets are enacted.
''I know well that some people are discussing an election and a political
realignment,'' Aso said. ''But we are not in a situation to talk about such
things as we are in the middle of the kind of economic crisis that may happen
only once in 100 years.''
His remarks raised speculation that he will seek to dissolve the lower house
next spring, when it becomes possible for the two budgets and related bills to
secure final Diet approval even if opposition parties oppose them in the House
of Councillors.
The government plans to submit the second extra budget on Jan. 5 when a regular
Diet session will be convened and to introduce the fiscal 2009 budget around
Jan. 19, according to lawmakers.
At the press conference, Aso also expressed his intention not to rule out
holding second votes in the lower house to enact the related bills to override
upper house decisions.
''The conditions for dissolving the lower house for a general election will be
set in spring,'' a source close to the prime minister said.
The battle between the ruling and opposition blocs continued in the closing
stages of the current Diet session through Thursday, with opposition parties
apparently seeking to gain public support by showing their readiness to tackle
the deteriorating job market.
The job security bills proposed by the DPJ, the Social Democratic Party and the
People's New Party cleared the opposition-controlled upper house last Friday,
when ruling party lawmakers walked out of the session.
The four bills consisted of measures to prevent employers easily rescinding job
offers to new graduates, to offer subsidies to employers to maintain
employment, to support the livelihoods of unemployed people and to prevent
employers dismissing temporary workers before their contract periods end.
==Kyodo
2008-12-24 22:21:14