From: cmr@world.std.com (Charles M Richmond)
Subject: Getting back to Normal!?
Organization: Integrated International Systems Corp. One Longfellow Place, Suite 3309, Boston, Ma.
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 14:21:25 GMT



	TOKYO (UPI) -- Parliamentary business returned to normal Friday after
12 days of squabbling as the ruling party agreed to demands that three
key politicians testify under oath over their roles in a political
payoff scandal.
	The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) said former Prime Minister Noboru
Takeshita will testify before Parliament Thursday. The party also agreed
to testimony from former LDP Vice President Shin Kanemaru and Hiroyasu
Watanabe, former president of the mob-linked Tokyo Sagawa Kyubin Co.
	The agreement cleared the way for passages of a critical
supplementary budget through both houses of Parliament by Dec. 4.
	The Parliament, or Diet, must obtain court approval to hear Watanabe
testify at the Tokyo Detention House where he is jailed on charges of
aggravated breach of trust.
	Disgraced political power-broker Kamemaru will be questioned Friday
at the hospital where he was admitted Monday for eye surgery.
	With the extra parliamentary session set to end Dec. 8, LDP leaders
dropped their previous objections to testimony from 78-year-old
Kanemaru, who underwent surgery Tuesday on his right eye and was
scheduled for an operation on his left eye next week.
	The dispute over who should be summoned to provide sworn testimony
had stalled the convening of the House of Representatives Budget
Committee, responsible for passing a budget considered essential to the
economy.
	The committee decided Friday to have the three central figures in the
scandal testify, breaking an impasse that began Nov. 9. Deliberations on
the budget were expected to begin Tuesday.
	The budget is of some interest to the United States and other nations
since it is meant to boost Japan's sluggish economy and draw more
imports into the country.
	Vice Finance Minister Mamoru Qzaki hailed the resumption of the
stalled deliberations and expressed the hope the budget will be approved
as soon as possible.
	``We've waited a long while, but it seems as if it has started moving
at last,'' Ozaki said.
	The end of the impasse boosted the Tokyo stock market, where the
benchmark Nikkei Stock Average climbed 162.29 points to close at 17,033.
60, recovering the 17,000 level for the first time in two weeks.
	While the LDP earlier approved Takeshita's testimony, the party
objected to the questioning of Kanemaru, who resigned from the House and
gave up his position as chairman of the LDP's most powerful faction last
month to atone for accepting a $4 million illegal contribution from
Tokyo Sagawa Kyubin, a defunct trucking firm.
	Kanemaru's surgery sparked accusations from opposition parties that
his sudden hospitalization at Odawara Municipal Hospital was an attempt
to avoid humiliating testimony in Parliament.
	The opposition camp refused to discuss the budget without the
testimony of the LDP politicians and Watanabe.

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*  Charles Richmond 	Integrated International Systems Corporation        *
*  cmr@world.std.com	(Temporary) cmr@koneko.shr.dec.com		    *
*  Specializing in UNIX, X, Image Processing, and Communications.           *