Diet deliberations on the bill to revise the Agricultural Co-operative Society Law have entered their final stage, as the government and ruling parties aim to pass it in the Lower House next week. They are prepared to accept partial changes in supplementary provisions of the bill in order to gain support of opposition party Ishin no To (Japan Innovation Party).
Meanwhile, farmers and primary agricultural co-ops (JAs) expressed various concerns over the bill at the regional public hearings held on Monday, June 8, indicating the need for more careful deliberations.
The government considers the bill as one of the top priority issues in the current Diet session. The Lower House began deliberating the bill, along with a counterproposal submitted by the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, on Thursday, May 14. While it is a custom for Diet committees to deliberate top-priority bills for at least 20 hours, the agricultural co-ops reform bill was discussed at the Lower House agricultural committee for 19 hours by Wednesday, June 10. The committee has invited experts and held regional public hearings to gather opinions. It plans to invite experts again early next week and ask Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to attend the deliberations. Ruling parties hope the committee will approve the bill next week and send it to the Lower House plenary session for approval.
Since the current Diet session is scheduled to close on Wednesday, June 24, not enough time is left for the bill to be approved by the Upper House and be enacted. However, on Wednesday, June 10, the government and ruling parties began considering extending the ongoing session in order to secure the enactment of security legislations aimed at expanding the scope of Self-Defense Forces’ operations overseas.
In an effort to get approval from part of the opposition parties on the agriculture reform bill, the ruling bloc began discussing modifying the bill with Ishin no To, which decided on Tuesday, June 9, to support the bill in principle. In the discussion, Ishin no To intends to call for an additional provision in the bill which will require farmers and primary JAs to deepen discussion for the realization of agricultural reform. But the modification is expected to be minor.
The DPJ, which has submitted a counterproposal, and the Japanese Communist Party are likely to continue questioning the reason for revising the law in the way stated in the bill, claiming that no evidence has been shown to indicate that the Central Union of Agricultural Co-operatives (JA-Zenchu) is suppressing the freedom of primary JAs.
At regional public hearings held in Ishikawa and Yamanashi prefectures on Monday, June 8, even attendants recommended by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to give opinions cast doubts over the bill and called for further debate. The government must respond to such concerns and the agricultural committee should take more time to deliberate the bill.
(June 11, 2015)