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Plenary Diet session closes after orderly deliberations Government bill passage rate of 97.5%

June 22, 2014

The 186th Plenary Session of the Diet closed its 150-day term on June 22.

 

In his opening remarks, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that the purpose of the Diet session was to achieve a "virtuous economic circle", and identified economic recovery as the highest-priority issue.

 

The emphasis was to ensure that the economy remained on a growth trajectory by avoiding declines after the April consumption tax hike.

 

The LDP approached Diet deliberations on this basis and quickly passed the FY2013 supplementary budget (total value of 5,474.4 billion yen), which featured economic stimulus measures and the FY2014 budget (total general-account expenditures of 95,882.3 billion yen). During this time, the budget committees of both Houses held a number of intensive deliberations on specific topics, including detailed discussions of social security, foreign relations and national security, disaster reconstruction, and energy.

 

After passage of the budgets, committees in both Houses began orderly deliberations of specific bills.

 

To move forward with Abenomics, the government submitted 30 bills related to the growth strategy. It also submitted bills for educational reform and measures to deal with difficult diseases, areas repeatedly identified by Prime Minister Abe as crucial.

 

The ruling and opposition parties jointly submitted a bill to reform the National Referendum Act to put the necessary procedures in place for constitutional amendment. There was also a bill to amend the Holidays Act to designate a "Mountain Day" in August. Under the leadership of the Party, deliberation on these bills introduced by Diet members proceeded smoothly. Leftover business from the previous session of the Diet, including amendments to the National Public Service Act to establish a Personnel Bureau within the Cabinet, was also taken up and passed.

 

As a result, 79 of the 81 bills newly submitted by the government passed during this session, for a success rate of 97.5%.

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