The ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s majority in both chambers of the Diet raises a fundamental question about the performance of the nation’s legislature: Is it carrying out its core functions properly?   The answer, alas, is negative.   Prime Minister Shinzo Abe symbolically reflected this state of affairs when he said in response to a question about a government-drafted pension….Read more

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….Read more

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (Liberal Democratic Party [LDP] president) has decided not to dissolve the House of Representatives in January. Based on an analysis of the results of various surveys on the political situation, he has judged that if a Lower House election is held under the present situation, the number of seats currently held by the LDP and Komeito,….Read more

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga was behind the passage of the IR (integrated resort) promotion bill, or the so-called casino bill, at the House of Representatives on Dec. 6.   A political reporter explained that the bill had been shelved for nearly three years because the Komeito party, particularly its leader Natsuo Yamaguchi, was against the deliberation of this bill.….Read more

Nippon Ishin [Japan Innovation Party] voted with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito on Dec. 14 against the motion of no confidence on the cabinet submitted to the House of Representatives by the Democratic Party (DP), the Japanese Communist Party, the Liberal Party, and the Social Democratic Party, calling this an act of “grandstanding in disregard of the….Read more

TV Asahi’s “Hodo Station” reported on the Upper House Cabinet Committee’s passage of the integrated resort bill that legalizes casinos. The network insisted that although the upper chamber spent more time discussing the controversial bill than the lower chamber, such outstanding issues as how to prevent gambling addiction have not yet been properly addressed. Projecting that Japanese casinos will most likely be operated….Read more

All papers projected that the ruling LDP is looking to enact the integrated resort legislation aimed at legalizing casinos at an Upper House plenary session tomorrow by circumventing a Cabinet Committee vote because the committee chairman, a Democratic Party member, is unlikely to agree to hold a committee vote on account of insufficient deliberations. Under the Diet Law, a committee….Read more

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe refused to give honest, straightforward answers to questions during the party leader debates at the Diet on Dec. 7.   Instead, he kept making lengthy remarks that didn’t respond directly and seriously to the queries, and he appeared to be just waiting for the 45 minutes allocated to the debates to pass.   His behavior was….Read more

The first debate of party leaders in the current Diet session has been held. Conspicuous were arguments at cross-purposes between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and leaders of opposition parties. Efforts on both sides are essential to make their debates more constructive.   Renho, leader of the Democratic Party, took up for debate the passage of the bill to promote so-called….Read more