TOKYO (MNI) – People’s New Party leader Shizuka Kamei stepped down
early Friday from the cabinet to protest the Democratic Party of Japan’s
decision to postpone the passage of a postal service reform bill until
the next parliamentary session, but Kamei’s party, a small coalition
partner, has decided to stay in the ruling bloc.
“Our promise with the DPJ was broken, and we could not pass the
legislation, so I will leave the cabinet to take the blame,” said Kamei,
who had served as postal reform as well as financial services minister,
told reporters in the early hours of Friday.
The DPJ decided on Thursday that it will not extend the current
150-day ordinary Diet session, which is scheduled to end on June 16,
because even after an extension, there won’t be enough time left to
debate and pass the postal bill before upper house elections in July.
The government plans to hold elections for the House of Councillors
on July 11.
The two parties agreed to maintain their coalition even after the
election in exchange for making the postal bill’s passage a top priority
at the next Diet session.
They have agreed to push for the passage of bills that will reverse
the drastic privatization of the national post office’s huge postal and
financial services started under the rule of the Liberal Democratic
Party.
The DPJ scored a landslide win in House of Representative elections
last summer, taking power away from the LDP. The DPJ and its allies
already had a majority in the House of Councillors after an election
victory in 2007 but the ruling bloc has lost it since the departure this
month of the Social Democratic Party from the coalition over a row on
relocating the U.S. military base on Okinawa.
tokyo@marketnews.com
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