Japanese parliament passes refueling, bank aid bills
12/12/2008 17:20
The Japanese parliament passed two bills today to continue Japan's
antiterrorism refueling mission in the Indian Ocean and to allow public fund
injection to bolster the banking sector.
The controversial refueling bill was
passed via a re-vote in the House of Representatives, overriding the House of
Councilors' rejection of the legislation.
The House of Representatives is
dominated by the ruling coalition and overrides the upper House, which is
opposition- controlled.
Under a temporary one-year law, the refueling mission
of the Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) in the Indian Ocean is to expire on
Jan. 15, 2009. The bill to extend the mission was brought before parliament on
Sept. 29.
In the mission, the MSDF is refueling foreign vessels taking part
in the US-led crackdown on ships linked to terrorism.
The refueling bill,
which initially cleared the lower house Oct. 21, was voted down during an upper
house plenary session in the morning.
The lower house enacted 334 to 133 to
override the upper house' s rejection to enable Japan to continue refueling for
another year from Jan. 15.
The amendment proposed to the financial bill by
main opposition Democratic Party of Japan was also approved.
The original
government-proposed financial bill cleared the lower house on Nov. 6.
The
amendment states that scandal-tainted Shinginko Tokyo, a bank primarily owned by
the Tokyo metropolitan government and under fire for lax lending practices to
high risk borrowers, will effectively be exempt from public fund
injections.
Xinhua
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