The ruling bloc forced three controversial bills through a House of Councilors panel Thursday night in a hasty attempt to put a lid on the nation's pension data woes.
The opposition parties were trying to stop the bills — one to remove a five-year limit on pension claims and the other two to dissolve the Social Insurance Agency and form a new body to oversee national pensions. They were arguing that the bills are too weak to deal with the problem of 50 million unmatched pension payments and that there had not been enough discussion in the Diet.
Earlier in the day in a separate Upper House committee, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, New Komeito, pushed through another bill — this one the opposition charges has loopholes — that requires politicians' fund management bodies to report expenditures exceeding 50,000 yen to extenuate the blow over the suicide of farm minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka in May. Matsuoka had been under fire for reporting enormous office expenses for a rent- and utilities-free office in a government building.
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