Apr 15 (Japan Times) - Senior Japanese ruling party and opposition officials agreed Tuesday to reduce lawmakers' salaries by 20 percent for a year as part of efforts to overcome the novel coronavirus crisis.
The accord was reached at a meeting between Hiroshi Moriyama, Diet affairs chief of the governing Liberal Democratic Party, and Jun Azumi, parliamentary affairs head of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
Both the ruling and opposition sides are expected to agree with the plan. They are likely to step up efforts to amend a law on lawmakers' salaries to start the reduction as early as next month.
Under the law, the members of both chambers of the Diet are paid ¥1,294,000 a month. A 20 percent cut would lower the amount to ¥1,035,200.