Mainichi front-paged an idea emerging within the Abe administration and the ruling coalition on convening an ordinary Diet session either on Jan. 20 or 23 following PM Abe’s envisaged four-nation tour of Southeast Asia in mid-January. The paper added in a separate piece that the administration is likely to prepare legislation in the upcoming Diet session on countermeasures against gambling addiction, which sponsors of the recently-enacted integrated resort law admit has not been properly addressed. The daily also wrote that the GOJ plans to double the number of cabinet bureaucrats charged with drafting a separate bill on the implementation of casinos to about 40 so that it can be submitted to the Diet in the autumn next year.