It is regrettable that while deliberations on the budget and bills progressed smoothly, discussions on many challenges have been left half-baked.   The ordinary Diet session has closed. A total of 61 bills submitted by the government have been enacted. It is the first time in 26 years that all the government-initiated bills were passed into law at an ordinary….Read more

There is a fierce internal fight going on in Japan over the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)’s positions. At the same time, we see a noticeable amount of bickering among the opposition parties. Meanwhile, parliamentary debate on key issues has become increasingly flat.   The regular Diet session ended on June 15, and for the first time in 26 years,….Read more

Tokyo, June 15 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese government this year saw all of its newly introduced bills enacted during a regular session of the Diet, the country’s parliament, for the first time since 1996.   The achievement was mainly due to the government and ruling parties limiting the number of bills ahead of the House of Councillors election on July 10,….Read more

The following is the gist of interpellations at the Upper House audit committee meeting held on June 13, 2022:   Rising prices   Sugio Hideya (Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan): What’s your view on the recent price increases?   Prime Minister Kishida Fumio: They are impacting people’s livelihoods as well as corporate activity and indeed causing public anxiety about the….Read more

Nikkei reported that all the bills submitted by the GOJ are expected to be enacted during the current Diet session for the first time in 26 years. The paper said a bill to revise the Penal Code to unify two types of imprisonment — with and without labor — into a single punishment was enacted during an Upper House plenary….Read more

The following is the gist of interpellations at the intensive session of the Upper House budget committee meeting on June 3, 2022:   Countermeasures against rising prices   Katayama Satsuki (Liberal Democratic Party): What’s your view on the inflation that has arisen since the Russian invasion of Ukraine?   Prime Minister Kishida Fumio: The measures to rein in the rising….Read more

Tokyo, June 3 (Jiji Press)–The leading opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan plans to submit a no-confidence motion against Hiroyuki Hosoda, speaker of the House of Representatives, over his repeated criticism of a reform plan for the lower chamber of parliament, sources familiar with the matter said Friday.   Hosoda is “not qualified to remain as speaker” of the Lower….Read more

Below is the gist of the interpellations at the Lower House budget committee meeting on June 1, 2022.   Countermeasures against rising prices   Izumi Kenta (CDPJ): Prices are soaring to extraordinary levels, and some people say, “This is Kishida inflation.” The government is not taking any countermeasures against the rising commodity prices. There are no measures against rising food….Read more