The House of Councillors has decided to announce the names of any upper house members who may become infected with the new coronavirus. The ruling and opposition parties reached an agreement at a meeting of directors of the upper house Committee on Rules and Administration.
The two sides will continue discussions on how to deal with potential cases in which the secretary of an upper house member is infected with the virus.
At the meeting, the committee also confirmed that upper house members should not sit next to each other in the plenary chamber but should be separated. For this purpose, there are plans to utilize members' seats not currently in use or the public gallery seats. The ruling parties will work out the details and submit them to the opposition parties soon.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Satoshi Oie, the top board member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said: "We all agreed that we need to be well prepared. The rules of the plenary session must be decided as soon as possible."
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had frequent fits of coughing when he spoke at a plenary session of the House of Councillors on Friday. "I met the prime minister in the morning and he looked fine. I think he had some hay fever symptoms today," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.
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