Japan's opposition boycotts parliament over election rule proposal

October 6, 2000
Web posted at: 3:26 PM HKT (0726 GMT)

TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- The Japanese opposition's latest boycott of parliament looked set to repeat the public relations flops of past walkouts as it entered its fourth day on Friday, with neither side able to garner public sympathy.

In a scene all too familiar in Japanese politics, opposition lawmakers clashed with guards in the halls of parliament as they tried to keep ruling bloc lawmakers from entering a committee room to discuss the electoral system proposal that sparked the boycott.

Holding placards and the yellow cards that symbolise unfair play in soccer, opposition lawmakers called on the ruling coalition to retract the proposal it submitted to parliament earlier this week.

Amid the pushing and shoving, several people were injured and opposition officials denounced the ruling bloc as resorting to brute force by calling in the guards.

But ruling coalition leaders accused the opposition of abandoning their duties as lawmakers by boycotting discussions.

"The situation is abnormal and very regrettable. The opposition is abandoning its duties. They must remember that we are getting our salaries from taxes," said Hiromu Nonaka, the Secretary General of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP.

But Nonaka gave no hint of a possible compromise.

"I am very much willing to normalise the situation as soon as possible. But we will not bend our policy by compromising," Nonaka told a regular news conference.

Parliamentary boycotts -- usually the last resort of an aggrieved opposition -- have grown more frequent in recent years, arousing more cynicism than sympathy among the public.

The LDP and its two smaller coalition partners want to change the Upper House election rules to let voters choose individual candidates as well as parties when casting ballots for the 100 proportional representation seats in the 252-member chamber. Currently, voters can only choose from among parties.

The reform could benefit the coalition because its candidates often have higher name recognition and stronger personal support groups. Voters slashed the three-way ruling bloc's majority in parliament's Lower House in a June election and deprived the dominant LDP of its simple majority.

Now politicians are looking toward an election next July for the Upper House, where the ruling bloc has a majority but could face a tough battle given Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's sagging popularity.

But to the eyes of the public, the standoff in the parliament appears to be just the usual political wrangling.

"The boycott will not yield anything. It's meaningless," said Ichiro Tomooka, a 31-year-old office worker.

Domestic media criticised both sides, saying much-needed debate on other vital bills was being sacrificed.

Some other key bills submitted to the current session of parliament include anti-corruption legislation and a proposed reform of juvenile crime laws.

"It's abnormal for the opposition not to take part and for the discussions of these important bills to go on with just the ruling parties," said an editorial in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun financial daily.

"While a boycott should not be ruled out as a protest measure by the opposition, the parliament has an important role to play making issues clear to the voters through debate between the ruling and the opposition camps," the paper said.

"The ruling and the opposition parties should not forget this and make efforts to resolve the situation," it added.

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