Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's government has created a policy framework that brings together the heads of the three ruling coalition parties and their secretaries general to discuss key issues — a move that appears to contradict his pledge to concentrate decision-making power in the Cabinet.
The administration had said it would only hold Cabinet committee meetings involving party leaders and ministers as a way to consolidate the policymaking process in the government.
A meeting to launch the new framework was held Monday at the Prime Minister's Official Residence and was attended by Hatoyama and Ichiro Ozawa, secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, among others, to exchange ideas about the budget for the fiscal year beginning next April.