Staff writer
With Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's battered administration keeping afloat largely because of a weak opposition camp, the current ordinary Diet session ended Thursday after 106 bills were passed.
A supplementary budget for fiscal 1998 was enacted Wednesday after the ordinary session was extended for eight days beyond its 150-day term. Despite Hashimoto's sagging popularity and widespread criticism of his management of the economy, the prime minister has managed to get most of what he had wanted, including budgetary measures to help prop up the sluggish economy.
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