The Abe administration appears determined to rebuff a demand by five opposition parties to convene an extraordinary session this fall. There are many issues that the Diet must discuss and that people want to be fully informed about, including the policy directions of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's new Cabinet, more details on the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact and the administration's economic policy. There is no good reason to refuse to convene an extraordinary session, as is customarily done in this season.
Abe had declared that he would continue to make efforts to present thorough explanations about the controversial security legislation, which his ruling coalition rammed through the Diet session that closed last month. Many questions about the legislation remain unanswered. At the very least, the administration should convene a Diet session to fulfill Abe's pledges.
In recent years, it was only in 2003 and 2005 that the government refused to accept an opposition demand to convene an extraordinary Diet session. In both those years, the Diet conducted substantive deliberations in a special Diet session held in the wake of a Lower House election as required by Article 54 of the Constitution. For example, in the 2005 special Diet session following a general election in which the Liberal Democratic Party led by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi won an overwhelming victory, bills for privatizing Japan's postal services were deliberated upon and enacted.