The ruling coalition decided on Monday to extend the extraordinary Diet session by two weeks, giving itself a window to pass bills on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and pension reform before the legislature closes for the year.
The extension means the extra session set to end Wednesday will run through Dec. 14, Wataru Takeshita, Diet affairs chief of the Liberal Democratic Party, told reporters after the secretaries-general of the LDP and its coalition partner, Komeito, met on the issue.
The coalition's leaders, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is also LDP president, and Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi, are believed to have agreed on the extension at a meeting on Monday.