Japan Ruling Party Defies Boycott, Railroads Budget

Japan’s ruling party rammed the national budget through the lower house of the Diet, or Parliament, today in defiance of an opposition boycott that had stalled the bill for nearly two months.

Political analysts said the move would increase pressure on the embattled Liberal Democratic Party and its leader, Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, who on Tuesday announced that he would resign over the country’s biggest postwar political scandal as soon as the work on the budget was complete.

It was the first time in Japan’s parliamentary history that all the opposition parties boycotted the key plenary session convened to vote on the budget, leaving nearly half the seats in the lower house empty.

The opposition has refused to take part in any budget debates to back demands for full disclosure of the Recruit Co. influence-buying scandal, which has sent the popularity of Takeshita’s party plummeting.

“We truly regret the absence of the opposition parties,” said Liberal Democratic Member of Parliament Tokuo Yamashita in a pre-vote speech. “But as the only party with a sense of responsibility toward the people, we have decided to bring the (budget) bill to the vote.”

While the Liberal Democratic Party has a majority in both houses of the Diet, it had been reluctant until now to use it to force the budget through for fear of causing offense in consensus-minded Japan.

Following Takeshita’s resignation announcement, political analysts said the government had nothing more to lose by going ahead unilaterally.