In an unexpected move, the Lower House Cabinet Committee on Friday postponed a vote on a bill that would extend the retirement age for prosecutors, pushing back a showdown over the controversial plan until next week.

The ruling coalition was expected to ram the vote through the committee on Friday after allowing Justice Minister Masako Mori to testify, as demanded by the opposition.

The delay was a partial setback for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who had insisted that raising the retirement age is important to preserve expertise and that the move is consistent with a previous revision extending the retirement age for public servants. The ruling party is hoping to approve the bill next week.

The legislation is a target of vociferous protests from opposition lawmakers, lawyers and celebrities, who claimed the change would enable the politicization of an independent judiciary system.

“I can see why the government is trying to pass this bill amid the coronavirus outbreak,” said Yasufumi Fujino, an opposition Japanese Community Party lawmaker, before the committee vote. “I absolutely can’t condone the government acting like a thief at a fire and bulldozing this bill.”

The passage of the bill could impact Abe’s popularity, which is already taking a hit over the government’s handling of the coronavirus. The move may reinforce critics’ suspicions that the extension is politically motivated and that the government now has earned rationale to tap Hiromu Kurokawa — the head of the Tokyo High Public Prosecutor’s Office who is seen as having cozy ties with the Abe administration — as the next prosecutor general.

As of now, the retirement age for prosecutors is at 63 but that for the prosecutor general is 65. The legislation would uniformly extend the retirement age to 65, but with Cabinet approval, prosecutors and the prosecutor general could be kept on until age 68. It would be implemented from April 2022.

Source: ANNnewsCH