Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Jan. 21 rebuffed renewed opposition demands in the Diet that he call a Lower House election and criticism that his administration has not pursued policies that benefit the public.

The latest call came from Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama as he kicked off debate in a Lower House session on the policy speech Fukuda made Jan. 18 to open the Diet session.

Fukuda offered nothing specific about an election except that he would consider how a poll could be held without disrupting the economy.

"What's important is not to talk about an election but to hold discussions with all parties and agree on the best policies for the public," he said.

Hatoyama charged that Fukuda has not introduced policies that would improve people's lives.

"The nation was hit by the surge in crude oil and gasoline prices, but this government has not cared about the lives of the public or the economy. It focused on giving free oil to American and other naval ships in the Indian Ocean," he said, referring to the law passed to allow the Maritime Self-Defense Force to resume its mission supporting antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan.

The ruling bloc twice extended the extraordinary Diet session through Jan. 15 to pass the law and thereby enable the mission to resume.

Hatoyama criticized the ruling bloc for using its majority in the Lower House to override the rejection of the law by the Upper House.

"If the government had used one-tenth of the energy it did to enact the antiterrorism law to resolve the pension records issue, people would have been helped," Hatoyama said.