Staff writer

Starting today, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi will have to put his affable nature on hold, now that he has been called upon to become a hard-boiled debater.

An experimental debate between Obuchi and opposition party chiefs starts at the Diet today, obliging the nation's leaders to engage in heated debate without the help of prepared texts.

The one-on-one, modeled after the "Question Time" sessions in Britain's House of Commons, will officially begin during the regular Diet session that starts in January. Each week, both chambers must hold a 40-minute session.

"This should significantly boost the ratings of live TV broadcasts from the Diet," a senior member of the Liberal Party said, adding that current legislative debates are too boring to attract viewers.

Although opposition leaders have had opportunities to directly question the prime minister during Diet interpellations, both sides often simply read aloud fully prepared texts, giving the public the impression that Diet deliberations are a mere formality.

During today's debate, only Obuchi can represent the tripartite ruling bloc. No other minister or bureaucrat may jump in to lend a helping hand to the prime minister, who will stand facing an opposition party leader 2 meters away.

The opposition leaders only need to submit to the prime minister beforehand a simple outline -- not the whole text -- of their questions, leaving Obuchi to prepare his responses without the help of bureaucrats, in a break from tradition.

Instead, the prime minister has been given a new weapon: the right to question the opposition leaders. Observers say this will prevent the opposition's arguments from becoming too idealistic and unrealistic.

On Oct. 27, Obuchi reportedly proposed to Yukio Hatoyama, head of the Democratic Party of Japan, that the two mutually exchange their points of argument prior to their showdown.

"Of course, I said 'no' (to Obuchi)," Hatoyama said.

The weekly question-and-answer session between the nation's political leaders is just one of the measures introduced in an attempt by lawmakers to wrest control of the Diet from bureaucrats.

Other measures adopted in July to reinvigorate the Diet include banning bureaucrats from answering questions on behalf of Cabinet members during deliberations. The ban has been in effect since the Oct. 29 start of the current extraordinary Diet session.