"Mr. Prime Minister, if I could have a moment. The members of the House of Councillors of the Liberal Democratic Party, in protest of your decision to not fire the two ministers the House censured, are not attending committee sessions examining major pending bills."That is the gist of this article posted by the Yomiuri Shimbun.
"That's right, they're not."
"So even though this is boycott is preventing the discussion of major parts of your policy program, you are not planning to fire the two ministers."
"The two ministers are reflecting deeply on their actions. So as to the following up on the demands to fire the pair, I'm not going to do it."
"Despite the deadlock in the Diet and the demands from the opposition for elections, or whispered plans of a quid pro quo where you dissolve the House of Representatives and call for elections in return for opposition votes on the bills establishing the legal basis for a rise in the consumption tax, and of course your inability to establish any kind of internal consensus within the Democratic Party of Japan on these bills, you are not planning to call elections, correct?
"I wish to strengthen the unity of the government and the opposition in grappling with these issues, so no, I am not planning to hold elections at this time*."
"Well, there you have it folks. From Dulles Airport, Commonwealth of Virginia, all the news that is not going to happen."
For no apparent reason.
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* NHK announcer Okoshi Kensuke, in a special live interview on the 9 o'clock news, managed to squeeze out of Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko the admission that the current electoral districts for the House of Representatives are unconstitutional. Okoshi could not, however, pressure the prime minister into admitting that it was impossible to call an election. (J). Instead the PM launched into the same rigmarole as in the main text, about the many important bills to be considered this session.
This is what is called "staying on message."
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