LDP's New Parliamentary Affairs Chief Drawing Attention

Tokyo, Sept. 22 (Jiji Press)--Hideki Murai, who became new parliamentary affairs chief of Japan's governing Liberal Democratic Party last week, is drawing attention from both the ruling and opposition sides.

The 46-year-old has been elected to the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament, six times but has never served as a cabinet minister.

It is very rare for a person with no cabinet experience to be named the party's Diet affairs leader.

The choice of Murai by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, also LDP president, for the important party position therefore is believed to reflect the Japanese leader's intention to manage parliamentary business at the initiative of the prime minister's office.

The opposition bloc is increasingly concerned that there will be more cases in which parliamentary proceedings are run in a high-handed way.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]