Staff writer

The 75-day extraordinary Diet session that starts Sept. 29 might as well be 75 km of rocky detour for Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, who will try to steer clear of ethics-related debris.

Originally the session was to take up a bill to rebuild the nation's coffers, a bill to establish public nursing-care insurance for ailing elderly and another to tighten penalties against "sokaiya" corporate extortionists and businesses that pay them off.