Each of the parties of the ruling coalition will coordinate the submission of a bill to regulate junk e-mail, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma said Friday.
The decision to separately coordinate the bill's submission was aimed at ending a squabble between the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and politicians backed by the Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry.
METI is planning to expand the law regulating mail-order service companies to cover junk e-mail, while a ruling bloc team is preparing a bill that would cover all forms of spam by all senders.
Hiranuma called on the ruling parties "to take into account the bill planned by METI."
"It's not that we are insisting, but the law already exists," Hiranuma said. "We want them to coordinate the bills in a suitable manner."
The two bills are similar as they both will require companies to inform recipients that the messages are ads, include their e-mail addresses, indicate ways the recipient can reject the mail and that they must stop sending spam when requested.
The moves are aimed at dealing with the growing number of complaints over spam, particularly given the increase of young people incurring debt on dating and adult Web sites.
The ruling bloc, meanwhile, held a meeting of the team the same day but failed to reach a conclusion on how to coordinate the bills. Instead, it decided to continue its efforts next week.