J Update

The chairman of interparty conference on consumption tax cut made a   presentation  for introducing 1 percent of new tax rate on foods. Although Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi promised in campaign of Lower House election that the rate should be zero percent, the leading parties are pushing 1 percent for a quick start of new rate. The opposition parties argue that the proposal was not a consensus beyond the party lines.   To counter opposition parties’ policy for eliminating consumption tax on foods, Takaichi, as the president of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), proposed zero percent consumption tax on foods for two years in the Lower House election in February. After the election, Takaichi explained that two-year moratorium of consumption tax on foods would be an interim measure until the government introduces refundable tax credit.   The details of the system were discussed in National Council on Social Security, a discussion body by representatives of parties that ap...

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi finished her schedule for Group of Seven summit meeting in Evian-les-Bains, France. In her   press conference  after the meeting, Takaichi stressed her achievements in discussing issues on China and North Korea with other leaders. Although she might have reminded the leaders of some agenda in Asia-Pacific region, the main topic in G7 was the deal of the United States and Iran over ending their war, on which Takaichi had no strong leverage. Through  the memorandum of understandings (MOU) , the U.S. President Donald Trump achieved termination of blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, Iran was successful in including Lebanon in termination of military operations. Iran also received assurance of 300 billion dollars of reconstruction plan, waivers for export of Iranian crude oil and availability of frozen or restricted funds and assets of Iran.   On nuclear issue, Iran promised not to develop nuclear weapons as it had been arguing that it...

The Bank of Japan   announced  that it raised its interest rate from 0.75 percent to 1.0 with 7 to 1 majority. The rate reached the highest level in these 31 years. The decision was based on their optimistic perspective for Japanese economy which is now suffering from price inflation and depreciation of Japanese yen, caused by the war in Iran. Nevertheless, foreign exchange did not show any significant surge of Japanese yen even after the policy change of BOJ.   Monetary Policy Meeting (MPM) of the BOJ was held on June 15th and 16th with an irregular posture. BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda was absent, because he had been hospitalized with infectious disease, not participating in the voting for the decision on interest rate. While the decision was overwhelmingly supported by the members of MPM, one member opposed to it, being afraid of exacerbation of production and employment in the future.   Vice-governor of BOJ, Shin-ichi Uchida, showed optimistic viewpoints on Japanese e...

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi embarked on her trip to Europe to participate in Group of Seven (G7) summit meeting in Evian, France, and to have bilateral meetings with world leaders in the backdrop of the event. Before arriving France, Takaichi made visits to the United Kingdom and Italy to strengthen ties with the leaders of those countries. Main topic with them were securing supply chain in this volatile world order and joint development of defense equipment.   In the meeting with the U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Takaichi showed her determination to maintain international economic security, namely to keep supply chain of crucial minerals working. Both leaders  expressed  grave concerns on economic coercion and arbitrary export restrictions including on crucial minerals. The “economic coercion” and “export restrictions” implies a trade strategy exercised by China. Takaichi has exacerbated Japan’s bilateral relations with China with her irregular comment on contingen...

During her travel in Europe for bilateral meetings with the U.K. and Italian leaders and Group of Seven (G7) summit meeting in France, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi received a news that the United States and Iran reached a deal to end their fighting. It must be a good news for Takaichi who has been making every effort to find fiscal resource to support the people suffering from price inflation stemmed from the war. Now her concern is what kind of contribution Japan can do, if the deal really leads to the end of war in Iran. “I welcome this memorandum on an agreement as a major step for settlement of current situation,”  posted  Takaichi in her account of X, emphasizing her diplomatic effort as the leader of Japan. She expected implementation of the agreement and free and safe traffic in the Strait of Hormuz as soon as possible. She praised efforts of the parties directly involved in the war or intervened in the negotiation.   At the beginning of the war in Iran, she ...

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is surrounded by multiple scandals. In addition to defamation of contenders in presidential election of the Liberal Democratic Party last October, a secretary of Chief Cabinet Secretary (CCS) reportedly spent accommodation fee of his business trip for his extramarital affairs. Takaichi has not been successful in explaining about those scandals, causing decline of approval rate for her cabinet.   Monthly  Bungei Shunju  magazine  reported  that a secretary of CCS had extramarital sexual affairs with a woman living in Osaka region, taking opportunities of business trip from Tokyo to Osaka for multiple times. He used his hotel room for his business trip to meet the woman without paying accommodation fee for two people. The report found at least five meetings of them between May and September 2025. The fee for their stay was paid as the cost of his business trip.   Moreover, the secretary is suspected to have leaked sensitive infor...

The legislative branch is required to review family registration system in Japan which mandates the people to choose one of two sexes. Osaka High Court   found  exclusion of nonbinary gender option was unconstitutional and needed to be revised. The plaintiff’s appeal to change current system was dismissed, because the court could not find any viable option to replace. The plaintiff is going to appeal to the Supreme Court.   Family register  is a public institution in Japan that certificates a person’s relationship with families and nationality as a Japanese. Article 13 of Family Register Act provides that the registration of entering a family register needs description of the person’s name, date of birth, names of natural parents and relationship with them. The relationship will be described as “son” or “daughter,” and “child” is not allowed.   The plaintiff was registered as a woman at birth. It was written as “first daughter” of the parents in the family regis...

The bill for reforming judicial system for retrial is poised to pass the Diet with support of the leading parties and an opposition party in current session. Before the bill was submitted to the Diet, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) accumulated intensive discussion against Ministry of Justice and the public prosecutors office over the system of requesting a retrial for defendants. Even with revision of the bill, it is still unsure that false charge of public prosecutors will be eliminated.   Over the bill for reforming retrial system, the LDP had unusual battle against the public prosecutors office. The LDP demanded that the law should prohibit the public prosecutors blocking defendant’s request for retrial, with lessons from false accusation on Iwao Hakamada who was detained for decades with death penalty and found innocent in a retrial. The public prosecutors insisted on their power for blocking request of retrial, being afraid of excessive requests for retrial by defen...

The Centrist Reform Alliance (CRA), the largest opposition party in the Lower House, is still in trouble for integrating its allies, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) and Komeito in the Upper House and local assemblies all over Japan. While Komeito decided to join the CRA soon, the CDPJ still hesitates to be the member of CRA. A miserable defeat in the Lower House election in February fundamentally damaged confidence of CRA as alternative to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). After underground negotiation since last October when Komeito left the leading coalition with the LDP, the Lower House members of CDPJ and Kimeito established CRA in January, just before Prime Ministr Sanae Takaichi called a snap election. The result was catastrophic. The CRA reduced its seats from 172 to 49. The party  concluded  that the establishment of new party could not remove a criticism on instant party aimed at an election and it was a miscalculation that the merge would...

Sanae Takaichi administration embarked on discussion for revision of security strategies scheduled by the end of this year. Concerning unstable security environment in the region around Japan, it is expected that Japan will further accumulate defense budget. Modernization of weapons are contemporary requirement at wars in Ukraine and Iran. Although there is an argument that Japan should maintain its three non-nuclear principles, it is unclear whether Japan can remain as a pacifist nation that renounces war as means of settling international disputes.   Takaichi has announced her intention to revise three security documents, -- National Security Strategy, National Defense Strategy and Defense Buildup Program --, which was revised in December 2022 by former prime minister Fumio Kishida. After that Donald Trump administration demanded allies of the United States to raise their defense budget. Unexpectedly prolonged wars in Ukraine and Iran showed unprecedented aspect of modern war whi...

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi still has not get rid of doubts on her to have disseminated video of defamation against other candidates in the presidential election of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in October 2025. Following   Weekly Bunshun   magazine,   Kyodo News Agency   reported  an interview to the representative of an information technology (IT) firm, who revealed his postings of defamation with consultation from a secretary of Takaichi. Although Takaichi denied asking distribution of the video, the man insisted that he had done it with request of Takaichi’s secretary. Kyodo reported that a man named Ken Matsui told that he advised a secretary of Takaichi to post negative information of contenders in LDP presidential election, when he was asked about election strategy to overcome the most hopeful candidate at the time, Shinjiro Koizumi. Matsui uncovered a fact that he and Takaichi’s secretary had an online conference on September 25 th , 2025, on camp...

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) revealed its   plan  to replace reactors in nuclear power plants to maintain certain share of electric power in the future. To earn 20 percent of all the demand for electric power, the ministry recommends 2 to 5 reactors to be replaced by 2040s or 11 to 14 by 2050s. To prepare replacement of nuclear reactors, it takes a long time and large cost for research and safety measures. Nuclear power generation had been a basic energy resource for Japan. It was recognized as “mid- and long-term basic energy which has stability for supply, environmental applicability and economic efficiency” in  the Strategic Energy Plan (SEP) in 2010 . However, the severe accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011 significantly changed the status of nuclear power generation. The government of Japan was poised to be independent on nuclear power as much as possible.   It was the 7 th  SEP in 2025 that resumed dependency on n...

The Speaker and Vice-Speaker of both chambers of the Diet   formed  a draft of “unanimous opinion” of the legislative branch on securing members of the Imperial Family. It approved two recommendations of experts in 2021, which were allowing female members to stay in the Imperial Family after marriage and reinstating male members of the former Imperial Family along the male line through adoption. Acting chair on this issue, Speaker of the Lower House Eisuke Mori, hopes to implement it by revising Imperial House Law by the end of current session of the Diet.   Allowing female members to stay has overwhelming support of all the parties. Article 12 of  the Imperial House Law provides that a female loses the status of the family member, when she is married. If female members can stay, they can share the roles of the Imperial Family. The draft also stresses respect for the will of female members who have been living their life based on current law.   The draft did not...

The Governance Committee of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) submitted   a report   on reform of the party governance to the board of directors on June 2 nd . The report recommended abolishing one of the penalties to its members, which was depriving official recognition of the party for the candidate in an election. Although the LDP introduced strict rules on its lawmakers who was involved in the slush fund scandal in 2024, it is mitigating the rules after a sweeping victory in the election in February 2026. The party recognizes those scandal-related members as cleansed by victory in the election. In the scandal of failing in reporting reception of fund for ticket sales for fundraising parties of factions, the LDP, under the leadership of prime minister Fumio Kishida,  punished  39 lawmakers in April 2024. Two lawmakers were recommended to leave the party, two were deprived of party membership for a year, one was deprived of party membership for six months, seventeen w...

The Diet   passed  a supplemental budget for supporting households which are suffering from price inflation caused by the war in Iran on June 5th. Although Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has been reluctant to form a supplemental budget, international security situation did not allow her keeping her own words. Total spendings amounting over 3 trillion yen will be brought by issuance of governmental bonds. Takaichi still insists on her political agenda named “responsible and proactive public finances.”   Exact amount of spendings of the supplemental budget in fiscal year 2026 is 3.1135 trillion yen. It can be broken down to 1) 2.5 trillion yen for the reserve to meet situation in the Middle East, 2) 513.5 billion yen for refilling the reserve in annual budget for FY2026, and 3) 100 billion yen for local governments that need to support households using liquified petroleum gas.   2.5 trillion yen is expected to be spent for subsidy to support gasoline price. Making a cle...

The President of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi   instructed  LDP Secretary General Shun-ichi Suzuki that the party needed to wrap up its discussion over reduction of Diet seats. The reduction is basically the idea of LDP’s coalition partner, Japan Innovation Party (JIP), that takes this issue as a condition to maintain the coalition with the LDP. Not only the opposition parties, but some LDP lawmakers are opposing it.   JIP has been demanding the LDP to restrict donations from companies and organizations to parties. But when it came close to a deal for forming a leading coalition last October, JIP suddenly brought Diet seat reduction in a set of  policy agreements  for coalition. Arguing that the issue was the most important in political reform, JIP agreed with the LDP on reducing Lower House seats by 10 percent. Regulation on donation, which the LDP firmly protested, was postponed to the fall 2027.   Although the LDP and ...

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare released   Vital Statistics   in 2025, in which annual births in Japan marked the lowest record for ten consecutive years. Total fertility rate also showed new low, giving evidence that Japanese society still in a trend of being aged. Although the government delivered policies to support young people, it is proved that they have not sufficiently working.   The number of babies born in Japan in 2025 was 671,236, reduced by 14,937 from the previous year. Total fertility rate, which means the number of babies from a mother in her lifetime, was 1.14, slightly declined from 1.15 in 2024. The average age of first marriage was as late as 31 years old with no change for three years. Although a national institute once predicted that it would be 2040 when births in Japan declines as low as 670 thousand, Japan has reached it 15 years earlier. The ministry recognizes that multiple reasons are interconnected and admits that fertility decline in J...

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi   considers  introducing new consumption tax rate for foods in April 2027, just before nationwide local elections. Although Takaichi promised 0 percent of consumption tax on foods in the Lower House election in February, it is likely that the rate will be determined at 1 percent, by seven percentage points down from current 8 percent. Takaichi administration is still looking for fiscal resource for the tax cut. When Takaichi announced her intention to have a snap election of the Lower House in January, some opposition parties embraced consumption tax cut in their campaign platform. Centrist Reform Alliance (CRA) argued that they could permanently eliminate consumption tax for foods. As a competitive policy against CRA, Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party, as one of the ruling parties,  raised  0 percent of consumption tax for foods limited to two years.   After a sweeping victory in the election, Takaichi started discussion for cons...