The National Assembly Stalled Before the Legislation and Saw a Decline in Bill Proposals

June 1-14 Bill Proposals Down by About 100 Compared to Same Period in April
Standing Committees Stalled Over Organization Despite Legislative Demands to Solve Public Issues
Daily Average Bill Proposals in Japan Half of Last Year's Level

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] It has been revealed that nearly half of the bills recently proposed in the ‘idle’ National Assembly have decreased within two months. Amid the domestic economy facing the ‘triple hardship’ of high inflation, high oil prices, and high interest rates, legislative demands to resolve livelihood issues are increasing, but not only the organization of committees but also bill proposals are being delayed one after another. However, there is a forecast that a large number of bills, which have been stagnant so far, will be released from the end of this month when the election phase concludes.

According to the National Assembly Legislative Information System on the 15th, a total of 150 bills were proposed from the 1st to the 14th of this month. This averages 10.7 bills per day, which is far below last year’s daily average of 19.6 bills. Excluding the 14th, when 45 bills were proposed at once, the daily average is only 7.5 bills.

Until April, a total of 211 bills were submitted during the same period, averaging 16.2 bills per day. Then, during the same period in May, it decreased to 146 bills (an average of 10.4 bills per day). The reason why the number of bills proposed remains low even two weeks after the local elections on June 1 is that bill preparations are still insufficient immediately after the elections, and time is needed to reorganize after escaping the election influence. It is also explained that, ahead of the local elections, each lawmaker’s office had frequent fieldwork, and coordinating schedules for joint proposals was not easy.

A Democratic Party official said, "Last month, it was practically difficult to propose bills because lawmakers who were to co-propose had gone down to the provinces ahead of the election," adding, "Bills that were prepared in April due to field schedules are only now being proposed. It seems that bill proposals are slow until the middle of this month due to the election influence."

The delay in the formation of standing committees, which has weakened the momentum for bill proposals, is also pointed out as one of the factors. A Democratic Party lawmaker’s office official noted, "Although lawmakers do not only propose bills related to their own standing committees, the delay in committee formation has some influence." He added, "Recently, bills require a lot of preparation time rather than pushing through a large volume, but it was physically difficult to do so during that time."

The Democratic Party criticized the ruling party again on the same day for the delay in organizing committees, following their statement the previous day that "all responsibility lies with the People Power Party." On this day, Park Jae-ho, a Democratic Party emergency committee member, said at the morning emergency committee meeting, "The ruling party is primarily responsible for national affairs," and added, "If the committee organization issue does not proceed, a system is needed where the president steps in to mediate."

Meanwhile, although bill proposals have been stagnant due to the recent election influence and delays in committee formation, a large number of bills are expected to be released in earnest from the end of this month. A Democratic Party official predicted, "Bill proposals were scarce because of consecutive elections, but starting next week, so many bills will be proposed that the current low number will seem insignificant."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.