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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 10 TOKYO 000809 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR E, P, EB, EAP/J, EAP/P, EAP/PD, PA; 
WHITE HOUSE/NSC/NEC; JUSTICE FOR STU CHEMTOB IN ANTI-TRUST DIVISION; 
TREASURY/OASIA/IMI/JAPAN; DEPT PASS USTR/PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE; 
SECDEF FOR JCS-J-5/JAPAN, 
DASD/ISA/EAPR/JAPAN; DEPT PASS ELECTRONICALLY TO USDA 
FAS/ITP FOR SCHROETER; PACOM HONOLULU FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ADVISOR; 
CINCPAC FLT/PA/ COMNAVFORJAPAN/PA. 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OIIP KMDR KPAO PGOV PINR ECON ELAB JA
 
SUBJECT: JAPANESE MORNING PRESS HIGHLIGHTS 03/25/08 
 
Index: 
 
1) Top headlines 
2) Editorials 
3) Prime Minister's daily schedule (Nikkei) 
 
Defense and security affairs: 
4) Seaman in Navy custody says he was in a bar at time of slaying of 
cabbie, lost the credit card somewhere  (Asahi) 
5) Prime Minister Fukuda says he is not thinking of revising the 
U.S.-Japan SOFA in response to USFJ incidents, prefers its improved 
operation  (Yomiuri) 
6) Host-nation support budget being derailed by Diet uproar and 
Democratic Party of Japan's growing opposition to it  (Nikkei) 
7) Prime Minister Fukuda covering Defense Minister Ishiba as DPJ 
pursues his responsibility for handling of Aegis accident  (Tokyo 
Shimbun) 
8) LDP defense policy clique, opposed to Ishiba's reform initiative, 
set about drafting own defense-ministry reform proposals  (Yomiuri) 
 
 
9) Foreign Minister Koumura pledges support to UN's PKO training 
center  (Yomiuri) 
 
10) Prime Minister Fukuda will only bring up Tibet with China's 
President Hu "if necessary," does not want to interfere with China's 
internal affairs  (Sankei) 
 
Diet at an impasse: 
11) Lower House Speaker Yohei Kono is trying to mediate between the 
ruling and opposition camp to break logjam over controversial tax 
bill package  (Tokyo Shimbun) 
12) Fukuda complains about the opposition's intransigence in the 
Diet  (Tokyo Shimbun) 
13) Inevitable that time will run out for package of tax-related 
bills being held up by the opposition in the Diet, making 25 yen a 
liter drop in gasoline a reality  (Mainichi) 
14) DPJ hanging tough on the gas-tax issue, but puts off submission 
of counterproposal that would make up for huge loss of tax revenues 
(Tokyo Shimbun) 
 
Articles: 
 
1) TOP HEADLINES 
 
Asahi and Tokyo Shimbun: 
Knife attacker intended to assault sister, elementary school 
 
Mainichi: 
Hegemony adrift (Part 1): North Korea exports arms to Ethiopia; U.S. 
winks at contradictions 
 
Yomiuri: 
Average land prices rise for second year 
 
Nikkei: 
Nippon Steel to build furnace complex in Brazil costing over 500 
billion yen 
 
Sankei: 
World Association of Newspapers calls for advertisements protesting 
detention of Chinese journalists 
 
TOKYO 00000809  002 OF 010 
 
 
 
Akahata: 
Report on falling job market 
 
2) EDITORIALS 
 
Asahi: 
(1) Knife attack should have been prevented 
(2) Shinginko Tokyo: Ruling bloc at governor's beck and call 
 
Mainichi: 
(1) Police to blame for Tsuchiura knife attack 
(2) Land prices: City planning important for revitalizing local 
economies 
 
Yomiuri: 
(1) Subprime loan crisis taking toll on land prices 
(2) What promoted Ibaraki man to indiscriminately attack people? 
 
Nikkei: 
(1) Land prices leveling off due to declining foreign capital 
(2) Do not throw mediation effort by the leaders of the two Diet 
houses into wastebasket 
 
Sankei: 
(1) Stopgap measure for provisional tax rates cannot be helped 
(2) Police response to knife attack too slack 
 
Tokyo Shimbun: 
(1) Prime minister must take another step regarding road-improvement 
tax revenues 
(2) Ibaraki spree attacker: Police failed to prevent second crime 
 
Akahata: 
(1) Taxi murder: U.S. Navy deserter must be questioned 
 
3) Prime Minister's Official Residence (Kantei) 
 
Prime Minister's schedule, March 24 
 
NIKKEI (Page 2) (Full) 
March 25, 2008 
 
10:47 
Met at Kantei with Hiroshima Mayor Akiba. 
 
11:21 
Met with Fukuoka Gov. Aso, chairman of National Governors' 
Association, and representatives of five other regional 
organizations. Met afterwards with Kenta Okamura, UN young 
ambassador from private-sector. 
 
13:00 
Attended Upper House Budget Committee session. 
 
17:12 
Attended LDP executive meeting. 
 
17:55 
Met at Kantei with Special Advisor Ito. 
 
19:05 
 
TOKYO 00000809  003 OF 010 
 
 
Met at his official residence with LDP General Council Chairman 
Nikai, Policy Research Council Chairman Tanigaki, later joined by 
Secretary General Ibuki and Diet Affairs Chairman Oshima. 
 
SIPDIS 
 
4) Cabbie murder: U.S. sailor "was at a bar" 
 
ASAHI (Page 39) (Full) 
March 25, 2008 
 
The U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Services (NCIS) has now 
detained a 22-year-old U.S. Navy seaman whose credit card was 
discovered in a taxi where the 61-year-old driver, Masaaki 
Takahashi, was found stabbed to death. The slaying occurred in the 
city of Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. This seaman, stationed at the 
U.S. Navy's Yokosuka base, has denied his alleged involvement in the 
murder, sources revealed. He has told the NCIS that he was at a bar 
along Yokosuka's Dobuita Dori street when the murder took place, 
according to the sources. The seaman has also told the NCIS that he 
had lost the credit card, the sources said. 
 
According to informed sources, the NCIS is questioning the sailor 
about where he was after he fled the Yokosuka base on March 8 and 
what he was doing on the night of March 19 when Takahashi was 
stabbed to death. The sailor has told the NCIS that he was at a bar 
along a street of entertainment and eating establishments known as 
Dobuita Dori, several hundred meters east of Yokosuka City's 
Shioiricho Nichome block, where the taxi was found with its slain 
driver. 
 
Along Dobuita Dori are a number of bars and restaurants often used 
by U.S. Navy and other military personnel. 
 
5) Prime Minister Fukuda has no intention to revise SOFA 
 
YOMIURI (Page 2) (Full) 
March 25, 2008 
 
At an Upper House Budget Committee session yesterday, Prime Minister 
Fukuda was asked by opposition parties about the calls for revisions 
to the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) in the wake of a 
series of misconduct by U.S. military personnel stationed in Japan. 
Fukuda noted: "I have no intention at this point in time of amending 
SOFA. I will focus on how to improve the operation of SOFA." 
 
In this regard, at a news conference the same day, Vice Foreign 
Minister Mitoji Yabunaka referred to a U.S. serviceman assigned to 
the U.S. Navy's Yokosuka Base whose credit card was found in a taxi 
in which the taxi driver was killed in Yokohama, Kanagawa 
Prefecture, and said: "The U.S. side has promised to fully cooperate 
with Japan once the Kanagawa Prefectural Police decide to question 
the serviceman." 
 
Speaking of the case in which the prefectural police ask the U.S. 
side to hand the serviceman over with an arrest warrant for him, 
Yabunaka said: "I think (the U.S. side) will naturally cooperate 
with the Japanese side." 
 
6) Burden sharing for USFJ also overshadowed; DPJ opposed to 
sympathy budget 
 
NIKKEI (Page 2) (Abridged) 
March 25, 2008 
 
TOKYO 00000809  004 OF 010 
 
 
 
Dark clouds are hanging over Japan's omoiyari yosan (literally 
"sympathy budget") for U.S. Forces Japan. The government has asked 
the Diet for its approval of a plan to enter into a new special 
agreement with the United States to extend this sympathy budget for 
another three years from April. However, it now seems difficult to 
get Diet approval before the current special agreement expires at 
the end of March. The leading opposition Democratic Party of Japan 
(Minshuto) is strongly opposed to extending the budget while calling 
for reviewing Japan's USFJ-related outlays, and the DPJ will likely 
forgo its entry into procedures for approval in the House of 
Councillors. The government fears that a vacuum, should one arise in 
the sympathy budget's execution, would inevitably have a negative 
impact on bilateral relations. The government is therefore calling 
on the DPJ to cooperate. 
 
"This amount of money is four times as much as that of the average 
family in Japan. It's too much." With this, Keiichiro Asao, a DPJ 
lawmaker, raised a question over the sympathy budget before the 
House of Councillors in its meeting yesterday. Asao called for the 
government to review its outlay for U.S. military housing's 
utilities, including heating and lighting expenses. Foreign Minister 
Masahiko Koumura stated, "The government will consider how to work 
on the U.S. side to make efforts to cut back." 
 
The proposed plan to enter into a new special agreement is for the 
Japanese government to take on an annual outlay of approximately 140 
billion yen, which covers utilities for U.S. military housing, wages 
for Japanese employees working at U.S. military bases, and other 
USFJ-related maintenance costs. The special agreement is a kind of 
treaty, so the Constitution gives the House of Representatives 
superiority. If and when the House of Representatives and the House 
of Councillors differ in their decisions on this special agreement, 
the House of Representatives' decision takes priority over the House 
of Councillors' decision. If the upper chamber does not take a vote 
within 30 days after the lower chamber's passage, the special 
agreement will be approved then. 
 
The government and the ruling coalition wanted to get Diet approval 
for the plan within the current fiscal year. However, the House of 
Representatives' entry into deliberations was delayed until Mar. 18 
in the aftermath of their standoff. On Mar. 19, the House of 
Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee met. That day, however, 
the committee only heard the government's account of reasons for its 
proposal on the special agreement and did not enter into substantive 
deliberations. The House of Representatives is expected to approve 
the proposed special agreement in its plenary sitting on Mar. 28 or 
later. 
 
Meanwhile, Yosho Hachiro, the foreign minister in the DPJ's shadow 
cabinet, grilled the government over the sympathy budget and how the 
money has been spent. "It's terrible," Hachiro stated. On Mar. 17, 
the House of Councillors Budget Committee held a meeting, during 
which it was brought to light that about 20 PERCENT  of the Japanese 
government's outlay in its burden sharing of personnel costs was for 
bar and golf course workers. There were a number of incidents 
involving U.S. servicemen, so the opposition parties are raising 
strong objections to the sympathy budget. 
 
If the DPJ opposes the government proposal, and if the House of 
Councillors remains unable to take a vote on it, the government may 
not be allowed to execute its relevant budget for at least one 
 
TOKYO 00000809  005 OF 010 
 
 
month. In that case, wages for Japanese workers and other payments 
would fall into arrears. The Japanese government informally asked 
the U.S. military to shoulder the burden. According to a senior 
official of the Foreign Ministry, however, the U.S. military 
disagreed with the idea. 
 
7) Prime minister defends Ishiba regarding Aegis accident 
 
TOKYO SHIMBUN (Page 2) (Abridged) 
March 25, 2008 
 
The House of Councillors Budget Committee conducted yesterday 
afternoon intensive deliberations on diplomacy and defense affairs 
in the presence of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, Defense Minister 
Shigeru Ishiba and others. In the wake of the release of an interim 
report by the Ministry of Defense on the recent collision between an 
Aegis destroyer and a small fishing boat and the punitive actions 
against those concerned, the major opposition Democratic Party of 
Japan pursued Ishiba's responsibility. Throughout the session, the 
prime minister remained defensive of Ishiba, making a clear 
distinction between that and the questions of selecting the new Bank 
of Japan governor and of the provisional gasoline tax rate. 
 
Regarding the fact that MOD produced only one interim report on the 
Aegis accident, punitive actions, an information leak incident and 
other misconduct, DPJ member Keiichiro Asao said: "We cannot help 
but think that the ministry intended to dilute the impact of each 
case." He also tacitly called for Ishiba's early resignation by 
citing the fact that following the Nadashio accident 20 years ago, 
then defense chief Tsutomu Kawara resigned from the post a month 
later. 
 
In response, the prime minister said: "(The decision) was made under 
the situation at the time. At present, Mr. Ishiba is mulling how 
best the system must be revamped. I would like him to do his best." 
 
About the fact that the Maritime Staff Office questioned the Aegis 
ship's chief navigator without obtaining Ishiba's approval or taking 
notes, DPJ member Tadashi Inuzuka raised a question about Ishiba's 
leadership, saying, "The (MSO) tried to handle the matter behind the 
closed doors behind the back of the defense minister." 
 
The prime minister again brushed aside Inuzuka's view, saying, "(In 
an emergency situation), people don't have time to think about 
taking exhaustive notes. It's not as though everything was bad." 
 
8) Defense policy clique independently develops MOD reform argument; 
LDP subcommittee reacts strongly to Ishiba vision 
 
YOMIURI (Page 4) (Excerpts) 
March 25, 2008 
 
In the wake of a series of misconduct by the Ministry of Defense 
(MOD), Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba has come up with a plan to 
integrate and reorganize civilian personnel from internal bureaus 
and uniformed personnel from the staff office of each SDF force. His 
plan though is drawing objections not only from within MOD but also 
from the Liberal Democratic Party. The LDP has established under its 
Security Research Commission, chaired by former defense chief Gen 
Nakatani, a MOD reform subcommittee, chaired by Yasukazu Hamada. The 
subcommittee has decided to produce a set of proposals in April 
ahead of the government's report in June apparently with the aim of 
 
TOKYO 00000809  006 OF 010 
 
 
forestalling the Ishiba vision. The tug-of-war between the defense 
minister and LDP defense policy specialists is likely to intensify. 
 
Ishiba's plan is intended to integrate civilian personnel and 
uniformed officers into one body tasked with three functions: 
building up defense capabilities, employment, and measures for the 
Diet and public relations. Work is underway by a MOD reform 
promotion team to map out specifics to realize the plan. Specific 
plans will be presented to the government's Council on Reform of the 
Defense Ministry in the Prime Minister's Office (Kantei). 
 
Ishiba's radical plan is drawing objections from within the LDP. 
Nakatani, for instance, raised questions about the Ishiba vision in 
his book published earlier this month, wringing: "It is an easygoing 
way of thinking that combining (civilian personnel and uniformed 
officers) will produce good results." 
 
The LDP subcommittee that held an inaugural meeting on March 19 
plans to produce a set of proposals in April regarding two points: 
(1) responses to national contingencies and crises, and (2) how 
civilian control and MOD should be. The subcommittee also intends to 
discuss matters without being bound by the Ishiba vision. 
 
9) Foreign Minister Koumura positive about mobilizing more SDF 
troops, police officers for PKOs 
 
YOMIURI (Page 2) (Full) 
March 25, 2008 
 
Foreign Minister Koumura yesterday delivered a speech at United 
Nations University in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward. In the speech, he 
mentioned Japan's participation in UN peacekeeping operations (PKO) 
and stressed: "The number of (Self-Defense Forces) personnel and 
police officers Japan has sent to PKOs has totaled 36. This figure 
ranks 83rd among 119 countries. I think Japan needs to more actively 
take part in PKOs under the current system." 
 
Koumura explained that Cambodia, to which under the PKO Cooperation 
Law Japan sent its personnel for the first time, "has now sent more 
than three times as many people as Japan has to PKOs." He indicated 
his willingness to send more personnel to PKOs. 
 
The UN has established a PKO training center in various countries. 
Referring to these centers, Koumura proposed supporting those 
centers in Asia and Africa on a priority basis, noting, "I would 
like to facilitate cooperation from various angles, including 
sending instructors." The Japanese government is considering 
dispatching SDF personnel to those centers as instructors. 
 
10) Prime Minister Fukuda indicates non-interference stance toward 
Tibetan riots; Would bring it up in meeting with Chinese president 
"If necessary" 
 
SANKEI (Page 5) (Full) 
March 25, 2008 
 
At an Upper House Budget Committee session yesterday, Prime Minister 
Yasuo Fukuda was asked whether he would put riots in Tibet on the 
agenda for discussion with Chinese President Hu Jintao during Hu's 
visit to Japan in May, but the prime minister refrained from coming 
up with a clear-cut answer and instead stated only that "If it is 
necessary to exchange candid views, I want to make efforts so that 
 
TOKYO 00000809  007 OF 010 
 
 
(Japan and China) can have a relationship to allow that." 
 
Ichita Yamamoto of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) 
inquired: "Do you have any intention to urge President Hu to 
facilitate a dialogue between the Chinese and Tibetan parties 
concerned?" 
 
In response, Fukuda gave his view about his diplomatic principles, 
noting, "The important thing is to find the other side's good points 
and associate with the other side in the way to help its good points 
to develop further." He even mentioned, "It is only natural that the 
two countries hold contrary opinions," revealing his nonintervention 
stance. 
 
In addition, Fukuda said, "The most desirable relationship would be 
such that allowed China to be frank enough to say to Japan, 'You are 
wrong on that point,' while Japan might advise, 'China should do 
this or that.'" Fukuda eventually parried Yamamoto's question, but 
Yamamoto wanted to hear Fukuda's determination to assume a resolute 
attitude toward the Chinese leader. 
 
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Masahiko Koumura, in response to the 
same question, noted, "It is likely that I will touch on the (Tibet) 
issue" during a planned meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang 
Jiechi, who is to visit Japan on April 17-21. Koumura indicated his 
intention to take up the Tibet issue. 
 
11) Lower House Speaker Kono urges ruling and opposition parties to 
break stalemate on provisional tax rates; Diet affairs committee 
chiefs to meet today 
 
TOKYO SHIMBUN (Page 2) (Full) 
March 25, 2008 
 
Yohei Kono, speaker of the House of Representatives, called the 
secretaries general of the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic 
 
SIPDIS 
Party of Japan, New Komeito, Japanese Communist Party, Social 
Democratic Party, and People's New Party in his office to urge them 
to break the deadlock regarding a bill to amend the Special Taxation 
Measures Law, aimed at retaining the current provisional tax rates, 
including the provisional tax for gasoline prices, over which the 
standoff between the ruling and opposition camp has deepened. 
 
Kono sough a meeting of the secretaries general, saying: "If the 
present situation continues as is, the public will have distrust in 
the Diet. I want you to make efforts to break the deadlock." DPJ 
Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama, however, said: "A meeting of the 
 
SIPDIS 
Diet affairs committee chairmen should first be held. If necessary, 
we secretaries general should hold a meeting." Other parties agreed 
with Hatoyama. So, the Diet affairs chairmen will meet today. Prior 
to this, DPJ Policy Research Committee Chairman Masayuki Naoshima 
met with his LDP and New Komeito counterparts Sadakazu Tanigaki and 
Tetsuo Saito in the Diet building. Naoshima told them that his party 
had decided to reject consultations on a revision of the tax reform 
bill with no modifications to the bill. 
 
Naoshima told them: "We cannot accept your proposal to hold 
consultations because the modified bill stipulates the special 
taxation revision bill should be enacted before the end of this 
fiscal year." 
 
He then added: "Since we do not refuse to hold a discussion, I want 
 
TOKYO 00000809  008 OF 010 
 
 
leave the matter to the hands of secretaries general." 
 
12) Fukuda grumbles about opposition parties' stance over gasoline 
tax issue 
 
TOKYO SHIMBUN (Page 2) (Full) 
March 25, 2008 
 
Representatives from six local groups, including National Governors' 
Association Chairman Wataru Aso (Fukuoka governor), called on Prime 
Minister Fukuda at his official residence yesterday and earnestly 
asked him to enact by the end of this fiscal year a bill amending 
Special Taxation Measures Law that includes a measure to extend the 
current provisional gasoline tax rate. One representative said: "If 
the provisional tax rate is scrapped, our revenues will 
significantly decrease." 
 
In response, the prime minister said: 
 
"I would like to avoid causing you trouble. We should discuss the 
issue (in the Diet), staying up all night and also on the weekend. 
But (the opposition bloc) has continued to refuse talks. It is quite 
deplorable." 
 
(08032502ys) Back to Top 
 
 
13) MAINICHI (Page 1) (Excerpts) 
March 25, 2008 
 
As the ruling and opposition parties failed yesterday to reach an 
agreement on the government's plan to enact by the end of the 
current fiscal year a bill amending the Special Taxation Measures 
Law including measures to retain the current provisional gasoline 
tax, the provisional gasoline tax is bound to expire on March 31. 
The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) yesterday 
conveyed to the ruling camp its decision to reject their modified 
bill on highway tax revenues. House of Representatives Speaker Yohei 
Kono called on the secretaries general of the ruling and opposition 
parties to resolve the matter through discussion, but no progress 
was made. Since many Liberal Democratic Party members are negative 
about further concessions from the largest opposition party, the 
situation is that it will be difficult for the two camps to agree to 
hold consultations on a revision of the modified government bill. 
 
Lower House Speaker Kono last night called the secretaries general 
of the ruling and opposition parties to the Diet building and urged 
them: "I want you to come up with measures to break the deadlock as 
there is not much time left (until March 31)." 
 
Therefore, the Diet affairs committee chairmen of the ruling and 
opposition parties are expected to hold a meeting today. DPJ 
Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama said in a strong tone: "The 
 
SIPDIS 
mediation by the top leaders of the two Diet houses was broken by 
the forced vote on the fiscal 2008 state budget bill in the Lower 
House." He revealed again the view that the mediation by the Lower 
House speaker and Upper House president at the end of January that 
the ruling and opposition blocs should reach a certain conclusion by 
the end of the current fiscal year had become null and void. 
 
14) DPJ may forgo vote on its counterproposal to highway tax bill, 
giving priority to lowering gasoline tax rate 
 
TOKYO 00000809  009 OF 010 
 
 
 
TOKYO SHIMBUN (Page 2) (Full) 
March 25, 2008 
 
With the current provisional gasoline tax rate set to expire in one 
week, a tug-of-war is intensifying in the Diet over the 
counterproposal presented by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) to 
the House of Councillors. The ruling camp intends to bring its bill 
back into the House of Representatives for a revote, based on the 
view that if the DPJ proposal is approved in the Upper House, it 
will be interpreted to mean that the government bill was rejected or 
amended. In an effort to avoid such a situation, the DPJ is expected 
to refuse to take a vote on the bill in the Upper House. 
 
Besides the measure to extend the current provisional gasoline tax 
rate, the government bill also proposes maintaining the exemption of 
taxation on foreign capital on the Tokyo offshore market and on 
cigarettes and liquor brought into the nation. With the aim of 
avoiding having these tax-exemption measures scrapped together with 
the gasoline bill, the DPJ's counterproposal excludes only gasoline 
tax-related measures. The main opposition party plans to have it 
enacted in the Upper House and then send it to the Lower House and 
enact it there. 
 
But the ruling coalition believes that if the DPJ plan is approved 
in the Upper House, the government's bill can be interpreted as 
having been rejected or revamped. Fearing such a situation, the 
ruling side has begun to emphasize that it would be possible to pass 
the bill by a two-thirds vote in the lower chamber, based on Article 
59 of the Constitution. 
 
Liberal Democratic Party Diet Affairs Committee Chairman Tadamori 
Oshima said in a press conference yesterday: "Whether to apply 
Article 59 is a matter that has room for discussion." 
 
The ruling coalition cannot make a compromise on the policy of 
maintaining the provisional tax rate, but no prospects are in sight 
for the DPJ to agree to talks on revising the bill. Even in the 
ruling camp, some have begun to say that it would be difficult to 
resort to the revote option. But the government cannot afford to 
worry about appearances. 
 
Meanwhile, the DPJ is increasingly alert to the other side's moves, 
because if the government bill is enacted into law, its strategy to 
lower the gasoline tax will be torpedoed. 
 
DPJ Diet Affairs Committee Chairman Kenji Yamaoka, with his 
counterparts of the Social Democratic Party and the People's New 
Party, intermittently met with Lower House Speaker Yohei Kono and 
Oshima yesterday. They proposed that the DPJ counterproposal be 
enacted as the speaker's proposal within this fiscal year. Their 
proposal stems from the judgment that Article 59 will not apply to a 
speaker's proposal. The ruling side rejected this proposal. Kono 
gave no clear-cut reply. 
 
The DPJ earlier submitted to the cabinet a written question under 
the name of Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama asking if it is 
possible for the ruling coalition to use a Lower House revote to 
force the bill through. In a meeting of the Lower House Finance 
Committee, DPJ members asked for views of the Cabinet Legislation 
Bureau and the Lower House secretary general in a drive to secure a 
"guarantee" for preventing the possibility of the bill passed by a 
 
TOKYO 00000809  010 OF 010 
 
 
lower chamber overriding vote. The Cabinet Legislation Bureau and 
the Lower House secretary general, though, gave no clear replies, 
either. 
 
In the DPJ, many members have begun to think it will be unavoidable 
to forgo a vote on the party's counterproposal in the Upper House 
and give priority to lowering the gasoline rate as long as the 
ruling side continues to refuse making a definite promise. A senior 
member was overheard saying: "We will wait silently until a week 
passes." The possibility is now growing that the gasoline and other 
tax measures will expire and that people's livelihoods will be 
seriously affected. 
 
SCHIEFFER