GGRAsia – Japan mulls extending Diet session to pass IR bill

Japan mulls extending Diet session to pass IR bill

May 30, 2018 Newsdesk Japan, Latest News, Top of the deck

The parliamentary membership of Japan’s two governing parties is considering extending the current session of the national legislature, buying time to pass important bills including the Integrated Resorts (IR) Implementation Bill. The current parliamentary session is set to end on June 20.

The coalition parties are concerned that the June 20 deadline would not allow enough time for the relevant bills to be passed by both chambers of parliament, a body also known as the Diet.

GGRAsia reported last week that the two governing groups – the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its smaller partner Komeito – were mulling an extension of the current session by “around a week”, in order to make sure that the IR Implementation Bill can pass both houses of the Diet.

On Tuesday, the Japan Times newspaper quoted a senior LDP lawmaker as saying: “We are short of deliberation time [for important bills]. We cannot help but extend the Diet term.”

A high-ranking lawmaker of Komeito was also quoted as saying that the parties should think “about how long the Diet session should be extended”.

According to the media outlet, the governing parties are considering extending the current Diet session to late June or early July.

Opposition parties however are concerned about approving a broad regulatory framework for the establishment of a casino industry too quickly, without the proper safeguards such as gambling addiction counter measures.

An anti-gambling addiction bill passed Japan’s lower parliamentary chamber – the House of Representatives – on Friday, and was sent to the upper house for further discussion and voting.