Four opposition parties made an unprecedented decision Thursday to jointly submit a motion in the next Diet session to demand the government reduce public works projects planned in the budget for fiscal 2001, opposition officials said.
Policy affairs chiefs of the Democratic Party of Japan, the Liberal Party, the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party met and agreed to ask the government to scrap some of the 9.43 trillion yen worth of public works projects in the 82.65 trillion yen budget, they said.
The opposition is particularly critical of a plan to extend the Nagano Shinkansen Line to connect Tokyo with the Hokuriku region on the Sea of Japan, where Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's Ishikawa Prefecture constituency is located.
The move would mark the first time the four parties have jointly submitted a motion to demand a budget change, they said.
They also plan to demand the government disclose information on the use of discretionary budgets allocated to the Foreign Ministry and the Cabinet in the wake of allegations that a senior diplomat pocketed hundreds of millions of yen from discretionary public funds.