Policy chiefs of the Democratic Party of Japan, the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito on Oct. 7 held their first consultations on the third supplementary budget for fiscal 2011 to push full-scale reconstruction from the March 11 quake and tsunami, and the Fukushima nuclear fiasco.
The three parties should accelerate their consultations to give people in the disaster-hit areas a greater sense of hope and relief. They should not forget the fact that seven months have already passed since the March 11 triple disasters, and that severe winter weather will soon start hitting the Tohoku region.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and DPJ executives should make serious efforts to build a constructive relationship with opposition forces. They should not repeat the mistakes of former Prime Minister Naoto Kan and former DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada, who failed to properly do the groundwork with the opposition to smoothen ties, thus making Diet business unnecessarily bumpy.