Political wrangling over an error-laden survey compiled by the labor ministry on what is known as the discretionary labor system shows no sign of subsiding, with the government persistently rejecting opposition calls for a redo of the probe said to underline Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's campaign to reshape Japan's work style.
Six opposition parties are jointly demanding that the government give up on submission of Abe's labor reform bill to this year's regular Diet session and redo the survey altogether. The government has so far rejected these calls.
This week the impact of the data fiasco is already plain to see. After hours of high-level negotiations with the opposition ran past midnight Monday without progress, the ruling bloc failed Tuesday to pass a state budget for fiscal 2018 through the Lower House as scheduled. Opposition parties maintain that they can't accept the budget's passage unless the government heeds their requests regarding the survey.