The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and leading opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan have broadly agreed that a question-and-answer session will be held during the current Diet session, possibly on June 9.
Leaders of both the ruling and opposition parties will discuss matters of policy during the session. If realized, it would be the first such event in two years, since June 2019.
Both parties are discussing holding the session sometime around June 9. It would also be the first to be attended by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in his current post.
With the dissolution of the House of Representatives and the general election in mind, the CDPJ and other opposition parties intend to question Suga about his government's responses to the novel coronavirus and the like, thus creating a key point of the current Diet session in its final phase.
"Holding a question-and-answer session by party leaders is extremely important, ushering in the most important stage of the current Diet session," said Jun Azumi, chairman of the Diet Affairs Committee of the CDPJ. He was speaking to reporters Wednesday following talks with his LDP counterpart Hiroshi Moriyama, during which Azumi asked the LDP to hold the session.
The CDPJ had not previously made such a request. It has apparently changed its tactics because there is no prospect of convening the Budget Committee of either house of the Diet with Suga in attendance.
Some within the CDPJ have also voiced concern that the party is obliged to ask for a question-and-answer session since the Budget Committee cannot be convened at present, but that there is a limit to what it can convey within such a limited time.
Forty-five minutes is set aside for each session. As the time allocated to the leader of each party is limited, matters tend not to be thoroughly discussed.
Question-and-answer sessions were held frequently for some time after their introduction in 2000, but opposition parties tend to focus on the Budget Committee, where they can question the government for many hours. CDPJ leader Yukio Edano said in 2018, "The historical role of question-and-answer sessions has almost ended."
The government and the LDP are poised to accept the opposition parties' requests.
Moriyama told reporters at the Diet, "It's a good thing for party leaders to express their candid views." Yet, some within the LDP also harbor a sense of unease about Suga's ability to express his opinions.
A young Diet member of the LDP said: "He might be solely on the defensive. There's no telling whether holding this session will bring good luck or misfortune."
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
