One of two legislative proposals to provide governmental assistance to survivors of the January 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake and other natural disasters will be carried over to the next Diet session for further debate, according to Diet officials.
The bill, devised jointly by some of the quake survivors themselves and a group of nonpartisan lawmakers, has been submitted to the Upper House. It was not given substantial debate during the regular Diet session that ended June 18, and will be carried over to the next session, which will probably be held this fall, the officials said.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is believed to have decided to keep the bill afloat because proponents of the measure include members of the Social Democratic Party, one of the LDP's non-Cabinet allies. A similar bill, proposed to the Lower House by opposition parties Shinshinto and the Democratic Party of Japan, was also scrapped without substantial debate.
The government and LDP remain reluctant to legislate large-scale financial assistance from state coffers to the survivors of natural disasters. In a statement released June 18, Diet members and citizens who led the effort to draft the bill, however, expressed pleasure after receiving confirmation that the bill would be carried over into the next session of the Diet.