The ruling coalition on Tuesday evening forced through a vote to hold a public hearing on the highly decried state secrets bill Wednesday afternoon without giving opposition lawmakers a chance to speak at the Upper House special committee on national security.
"This kind of Diet steering is unheard of," charged Tetsuto Fukuyama of the Democratic Party of Japan after the special committee closed with only the ruling bloc voting to hold the public hearing. "How can the ruling camp say they will have heard out public opinion when they set the hearing less than one day before holding it?"
Adamant about passing the contentious bill by Friday, the ruling camp was trying to set the stage for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to appear at the Upper House special committee Wednesday morning to give the opposition the chance to grill him, so that it could then hold the regional public hearing in Omiya, Saitama Prefecture, in the afternoon.