LEAD: Extra Diet session moved up to Oct. 1 to discuss budget+

TOKYO, Sept. 22 Kyodo -
(EDS: ADDING DETAILS)
An extraordinary Diet session will be convened Oct. 1, with deliberations
focused on an extra budget, lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan
said Wednesday.
The session will be the first of its kind after Friday's reshuffle of Prime
Minister Naoto Kan's Cabinet, with the premier aiming to secure approval for
the extra budget for fiscal 2010.
But the Kan administration is gearing up for a tough battle as it faces a
''divided Diet,'' where the opposition parties control the upper house and the
ruling parties control the lower house, and it remains uncertain if the ruling
and opposition camps can agree on the budget and other bills.
The extraordinary session was originally planned to start Oct. 6.
Katsuya Okada, DPJ secretary general, said the front-loading of the Diet
schedule comes from what the DPJ saw as the need to allot more time for
deliberation and calls from opposition parties to convene earlier.
On how to deal with the situation, Okada said at a news conference at the DPJ
headquarters, ''It really all comes down to saying that we will talk with
opposition parties in all sincerity.''
Noting that the ruling parties have lost their majority in the upper house,
Okada said, ''We need to have the budget and bills passed by gaining the
support of the opposition parties.''
A thorough dialogue between the ruling and opposition parties is ''extremely
important in protecting the lives of the public and national interests,'' he
said, seeking the cooperation of the opposition bloc.
Yoshio Hachiro, the DPJ's Diet affairs chief who made the announcement about
the Oct. 1 start of the Diet session, said that with this Diet schedule,
arrangements are now being made to cancel the premier's attendance at the
Asia-Europe Meeting summit in Brussels slated for Oct. 4-5.
A senior official said the session is expected to last for over two months
until early December.
Kan plans to give his policy speech on Oct. 1, and there will be
interpellations from Oct. 4-6 in both the House of Representatives and the
House of Councillors.
Budget committees for both chambers are planned to be convened respectively
from Oct. 7-8, and Oct. 12-13.
Hachiro informed the opposition Liberal Democratic Party after basically
agreeing on the Diet schedule Wednesday morning with Mikio Shimoji, secretary
general of the People's New Party, a junior coalition partner of the DPJ.
He told Ichiro Aisawa, chairman of the LDP Diet affairs committee, about the
change, which Aisawa welcomed.
The extra Diet session comes before the government formulates a budget for
fiscal 2011 at the end of the year.
Kan has called for talks on an extra budget with opposition parties ahead of
the forthcoming Diet session. But LDP leader Sadakazu Tanigaki said the time is
not ripe for such a meeting and the matter could be discussed in the Diet.
In addition to the extra budget, which is needed to finance additional stimulus
measures, the ruling coalition is eyeing resubmitting to the Diet and passing a
postal reform bill, which is being pushed by the PNP.
Okada also dismissed calls within the DPJ to have the postal reform bill
revised as a compromise with the opposition bloc, saying that the DPJ and PNP
made an agreement about the bill without revisions so that ''should be
respected.''
==Kyodo
2010-09-22 20:28:57