It’s the eleventh-hour war of words at the Diet.
Fierce protests from opposing Japanese lawmakers have caused the deliberations over a bill to legalize casino gambling to drag into Tuesday evening, with no end in sight, local media outlets reported.
Because of this, it appears that the Upper House committee will be unable to pass the IR Promotion bill before the ongoing extraordinary Diet session wraps up Wednesday after a two-week extension. And this could motivate the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to resort into a tactic to force action in plenary session.
The Democratic Party, along with smaller opposition parties, have signaled that they will do everything they can to block the bill’s progress. DP Diet affairs chief Kazunori Yamanoi was quoted by Japan Times saying he will “take every possible measure” to block the bill’s enactment, indicating that his party may submit a no-confidence motion against the Abe Cabinet.
Toshihiro Nikai, secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, on Monday said flatly that the party would veto such a motion.
“We’re facing a very difficult situation, but we still have some time left,” he said, according to the news outlet. “We are sticking to the stance that we will go all out” to pass it.
Tuesday’s events led to speculations that the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe‘s party will send the bill straight to plenary session sans committee-level approval. This move, though not unprecedented, would defy the standard protocol and possibly give the opposing lawmakers more ammunition to criticise LDP for its “heavy-handedness.”
The IR bill was sponsored by the Liberal Democratic Party, which holds a majority in the Diet, but some LDP members abstained from voting on it, including Defense Secretary Gen. Nakatani, who complained about the “heavy-handed” way the bill was rushed through a Cabinet committee last week.
Nikai refrained from commenting whether the party will take that route. If the lawmakers failed to enact the bill on Wednesday, the Diet session could be extended again for a few more days.
