LEAD: Lower house OKs to change Greenery Day to Showa Day

Japan Policy & Politics, July 22, 2003

TOKYO, July 17 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING INFO IN 5 PARA)

The House of Representatives endorsed a bill Thursday to change the name of the April 29 Greenery Day national holiday to Showa Day, and move the date of Greenery Day to May 4, already a holiday.

The bill for amending the National Holidays Law cleared the lower house at its plenary session on a majority vote by lawmakers of the three governing parties, the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and the opposition Liberal Party.

But deliberations on the bill in the House of Councillors is expected to be carried over to the next Diet session due to a shortage of deliberation time. The current regular session is slated to end July 28.

Although DPJ members who formerly belonged to the Socialist Democratic Party strongly opposed the bill, the DPJ decided Tuesday at an executive meeting to support the coalition-backed bill.

But four DPJ lawmakers did not follow the party line. Kinya Narazaki opposed the bill by not standing up during the vote, while Ken Okuda, Yukio Ubukata and Yutaka Kuwabara left their seats before voting.

An earlier version of the bill was submitted to a regular Diet session in 2000. But it was scrapped amid wrangling over then Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's nationalistic remarks that Japan is a ''divine nation'' centered on the emperor.

The remarks angered many opposition lawmakers and led many in the governing coalition to show reluctance in proceeding with deliberations on the bill.

April 29 was Emperor Hirohito's birthday. The emperor, who died in January 1989, is posthumously called Emperor Showa in Japan. After his death, his birthday, already a national holiday, was designated to continue as such under the name Greenery Day, a day for appreciating nature.

The new law, if enacted, would change April 29 to Showa Day and Greenery Day would shift to May 4, currently a specially designated ''between day'' holiday creating a longer vacation period by linking it with Constitution Day on May 3 and Children's Day on May 5 during Japan's Golden Week holidays.