Convocation of the Diet Is Fixed

The Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) proposed convocation of a special session of the Diet on November 10th, in which the coalition of the LDP and Komeito will not have a simple majority in the House of Representatives for the first time since 2012. The opposition parties accepted the proposal without any approval on the date of the election for nominating the prime minister or how long the session should be. The LDP faces an inconvenient reality that it has lost its strong grip in the Diet. 

According to the Constitution of Japan, a special session of the Diet, different from ordinary session or extraordinary session, needs to be held within thirty days after a general election of the House of Representatives. Main issue of a special session would ordinarily be having an election to nominate the prime minister, because any cabinet has to be dissolved at the beginning of a special session.

 

Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, proposed the convocation on October 10th in the meeting of parties in the Diet. Although the parties agreed on it, the opposition parties did not accept the leading parties’ proposal for setting the end of special session on October 14th, demanding longer term for detailed discussion on political reform or supplementary budget plan in Committee on Budget of each Houses. The date of election, ordinarily be the first day of the session, has also not been determined.

 

The leading coalition wants to close the special session as soon as Ishiba will be elected as the prime minister. Then, it hopes to convoke another extraordinary session for discussing economic stimulus plan and supplemental budget later this month.

 

In the extraordinary session of the Diet in October, the opposition parties submitted a non-confidential resolution against Ishiba Cabinet to each House, which did not pass. If they submit it in the special session or later extraordinary session, the resolution can be pass the Diet with some votes against Ishiba from the leadimg parties. Ishiba administration needs to be vigilant for maintaining majority in every voting.

 

The LDP agreed with the Democratic Party for the People (DPP) to start their policy talks later this week between the leaders of policy councils in both parties. The DPP is focusing on raising threshold of imposing income tax and activation of automatic reduction system of gasoline prices. The LDP is going to introduce those DPP requests in the supplementary budget as much as possible.

 

The DPP also had a meeting with other opposition parties, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), Japan Innovation Party and Japan Communist Party over Diet affairs. Those parties agreed on requesting the leading coalition to secure enough days to discuss political reform in the committees and political ethics council in the special session. The leaders of CDPJ, Yoshihiko Noda, and DPP, Yuichiro Tamaki, reconfirmed that they would demand revision of Political Funds Control Act. The DPP keeps channels with both the LDP and the oppositions.

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