An extraordinary Diet session will be held for 48 days from Oct. 29 to Dec. 15, the ruling triumvirate agreed Tuesday.
Diet affairs chiefs of the Liberal Democratic Party, Liberal Party and New Komeito will confirm the schedule today with their counterparts in the opposition camp.
The ruling coalition is expected to submit as many as 80 bills during the upcoming Diet session, including legislation to revitalize small and medium-size enterprises, and review the bureaucracy.
The government of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi will also seek to regulate the activities of Aum Shinrikyo, which appears to be thriving despite the prosecution of its members for the 1995 sarin gassing in Tokyo and a series of other crimes linked to the cult.
The LDP originally discussed starting the Diet session on Nov. 5. The advanced schedule has spurred speculation that the Obuchi administration may be considering dissolving the Lower House and holding a general election around late December.
A general election must held by next October, when the four-year term of current Lower House members expires.
Meanwhile, Shozo Kusakawa, the Diet affairs chief of New Komeito, said the three ruling parties will submit the draft of a fiscal 1999 supplementary budget to the Diet on Nov. 25 or 26.