The 53-day extraordinary Diet session ended Friday with little progress on key contentious issues -- namely a political money scandal and the war in Iraq.
While both the ruling bloc and the opposition camp have criticized each other for failing to act sincerely during Diet deliberations, critics said the Diet was dead in terms of its role of running a parliamentary democracy.
Both camps separately submitted bills to revise the Political Funds Control Law. The bills were drafted in response to a scandal over an unreported 100 million yen donation received by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's largest faction, headed by former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto.