Cabinet expansion bill sent to Diet to create new posts

Law to be amended to add three ministers for nuke, disaster issues

Kyodo

The government on Friday submitted a bill to the Diet to expand the Cabinet by three ministers to help speed up reconstruction after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The Cabinet Law stipulates that the Cabinet can only have 17 ministers, excluding the prime minister,

The three posts Prime Minister Naoto Kan is considering creating will cover reconstruction work, issues related to the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, and responsibilities taken on by other ministers, such as Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano's portfolio covering Okinawa and Northern Territories affairs.

The government also presented a basic law that outlines the framework for the reconstruction of quake-hit Tohoku region, including setting up a reconstruction agency, as proposed by the two main opposition parties, within a year of the law's enforcement.

But the prospects appear bleak for the Democratic Party of Japan-led government to secure sufficient support from opposition parties, who are increasingly hostile to Kan's handling of reconstruction efforts, to enact the revision.

The Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito, the two largest opposition parties, have demanded that a reconstruction agency with greater authority be created immediately, and are eyeing a counterproposal to the basic law.

"We do have our differences in opinions . . . but we all share an understanding that disaster victims will be affected if the ruling and opposition parties do not agree," Edano said in a news conference, adding the ruling camp will be flexible in seeking the cooperation of the opposition in the bills' passage.

Under the proposed law, the government plans to initially set up what it calls the "reconstruction measures headquarters" at the Cabinet, which will be headed by Kan with the participation of all his ministers.

A key advisory panel to the government tasked with devising a master plan to rebuild regions will submit recommendations to the headquarters.

The government aims to eventually reorganize the headquarters into the reconstruction agency.