Staff writer

The upcoming extraordinary Diet session is expected to debate a bill aimed at disposing 27.8 trillion yen in debts left behind by the Japanese National Railways -- more than a decade after JNR was privatized.

But with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's setback in the July 12 Upper House election, swift passage of the controversial bill -- which calls for the railways created by the privatization to shoulder an additional portion of the debts -- may be difficult.