With the Diet's passage of the fiscal 2006 budget, the Koizumi administration has cleared an important hurdle. But the Diet is in a sad state following the Democratic Party of Japan's blunder in its handling of an e-mail message presented by a DPJ lawmaker alleging shady financial ties between disgraced Livedoor Co. founder Takafumi Horie and the second son of Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe. After the party determined that the e-mail message was a fake, the DPJ appeared to lose its drive and was unable to launch serious Diet discussions on important issues that people want the Diet to delve into.

It is regrettable that the DPJ failed to engage the government in heated discussions on the budget, which gives a financial basis for the administration's various measures and directly affects people's lives. The Diet should not be turned into a conveyor belt for passing bills. The DPJ needs to awaken to its duty as the No. 1 opposition party and do its utmost to deepen Diet debates. This is the only way for the party to regain people's trust and for the Diet to function normally.

At one time, the DPJ had an opportunity to launch an offensive in the Diet against the Koizumi administration. There were issues that the party could have politically exploited to its advantage -- such as the U.S. beef-import issue, the falsification of earthquake-resistance data by structural designer Mr. Hidetsugu Aneha, the LDP's support for Mr. Horie as a candidate in the Sept. 11 general elections, and bid-rigging by Defense Facilities Agency officials.