The first extraordinary Diet session on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's watch ended Tuesday without fanfare, having finished business last week by passing his legislation to revise the education law and to turn the Defense Agency into a ministry.
The opposition camp, led by the Democratic Party of Japan, actually didn't make its move against the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner, New Komeito, until Friday, the scheduled close of the session, by submitting a no-confidence motion against Abe's Cabinet.
That abortive attempt only managed to delay Diet proceedings by half a day and drive a grumbling ruling coalition into extending the session for four days as a safety measure to ensure all of the bills it was pushing would be passed.