DPJ not to allow coalition partners to join state strategy bureau

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TOKYO, Sept. 13 Kyodo -
The Democratic Party of Japan plans not to allow its two minor coalition
partners to join the National Strategy Bureau, planned to be created as a
policymaking body to lay out budgets and basic policies in the upcoming
coalition government, party sources said Sunday.
DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama continued preparations Sunday for shaping his Cabinet
lineup before launching the Cabinet soon after parliament votes him in as
Japan's next prime minister at a special session on Wednesday.
The DPJ and its coalition partners, the Social Democratic Party and the
People's New Party, will set up a committee of Cabinet ministers consisting of
leader-level lawmakers to coordinate their parties' policies, the sources said.
The two minor parties are expected to react to the DPJ's plan not to allow them
to join the state strategy bureau as they had mentioned their desire to
participate when they were discussing whether they could form a coalition
government.
The committee on basic policies will be attended by the DPJ's Naoto Kan, to be
appointed as deputy prime minister and state strategy minister, and SDP leader
Mizuho Fukushima and PNP leader Shizuka Kamei, who will also join the coalition
Cabinet. Lawmakers of the three parties will also attend the committee to
assist their leaders.
In a television program on Sunday, Takeaki Matsumoto, the DPJ's former policy
chief, said his party has no plan to have the two coalition partners
participate in the state strategy bureau as it is not a place for inter-party
adjustment of policies.
In the program, lawmakers of the two minor parties repeatedly called on the DPJ
to allow their parties to join the state strategy bureau.
==Kyodo
2009-09-13 21:28:36