LDP Starts Policy Talk with CDPJ

Expecting moderate support from the biggest opposition party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) began policy talk with the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) on February 14th. As a management of minority government in the House of Representatives, the LDP included the CDPJ to the respective frameworks of policy talk, adding to the Democratic Party for the People (DPP) and Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin-no Kai) to secure a majority votes for FY 2025 budget bill. CDPJ requested revision of the budget bill, which would cause 3.8 trillion yen of change in spendings.

For the leading party, passing annual budget bill sometimes has a fatal importance. In 1989, Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, who had been accused of involvement in the Recruit Scandal, stepped down in exchange for the annual budget. Last minority government in the House of Representatives thirty-one years ago collapsed when Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata resigned with a deadlock of FY 1994 budget.

 

Right after East Japan Great Earthquake in 2011, Prime Minister Naoto Kan failed in passing bills for executing new fiscal year budget with minority in the House of Councillors. Kan consequently stepped down in September of the year.

 

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba puts the highest priority on passing FY 2025 budget bill by the end of March. To obtain majority votes for the bill in the House of Representatives, the LDP and its coalition partner Komeito had discussion with DPP over raising threshold of imposing income tax from annual 1.03 million yen for each family to 1.78 million yen. The leading parties also keep talks with Ishin on free tuition for every high school student. Those talks has not reached a deal.

 

The CDPJ requested the LDP to add spendings for their policies in the FY 2025 budget which amounted 3.8 trillion yen. They included 1.5 trillion yen for tax reduction for gasoline, 571 billion yen for better treatment of the workers in nursery facilities, 480 billion yen for free school lunch and 370 billion yen for support for high school tuition. The party also demanded stop raising fees for medical support for expensive treatment, which is highly interested in by the patient of cancer or other serious diseases.

 

The head of CDPJ, Yoshihiko Noda, has been stressing that his party would be responsible for the budget, not only requesting their policies. The CDPJ also proposed which spendings should be cut from the original bill. The party argues that 2.7 trillion yen can be yielded by cutting budget for unnecessary funds in the government. It also estimates that 500 billion yen can be cut in fiscal reserves, 100 billion yen in subsidies for local governments and 458 billion yen in basic pension payments.

 

The LDP is going to discuss whether they can accept the requests from the CDPJ. It is not necessary for the leading coalition to accept all the CDPJ policies to pass the budget bill, if they are successful in achieving approval from one of two other parties, DPP or Ishin. Considering other issues expected after the budget discussion, however, which include non-confident resolution against Ishiba Cabinet or political reform over donation from companies and organizations, the LDP hopes to secure as much support from the opposition parties as possible.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amendment of Local Autonomy Law

The House of Representatives started discussion on revision of the Local Autonomy Law, which would vest the national government a power to instruct local government in an emergency. It may change the relationship between the national and local government, which has been recognized as equal. The opposition parties oppose the amendment, arguing that it would give the national government an excessive power.   With the Meiji Restoration, the national government abolished the feudal system, introducing modern governance. However, its autonomy was not sufficient. The governor of each prefecture was appointed by the national government. The local governments subordinated to the national government. It was as late as 2000 when  the Comprehensive Decentralization Law  was enacted and the relationship between the national and local government was defined as equal.   The national government found inconvenience in the relationship between the national and local government, when ...
Read more

Request for Final Nuclear Disposal Site

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry requested Genkai Town, Saga, to accept “literature survey” for building a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste. Genkai is going to answer within this month. If it accepts, it will be the third place to accept that survey, following two places in Hokkaido. Main reason to accept the survey is supposed to be subsidy from the national government.   Japan has no final disposal site. Among all 54 reactors in 17 nuclear power generation plant, 12 reactors of 6 plants are operating. The rest of them are not in operation, some of which are determined to be decommissioned. Used nuclear fuels are stocked in each plant, 　 or have sent to a reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori. There are two plans to stock nuclear wastes in the intermediate facility for disposal, one is already built and another is still in negotiation.   Nuclear Fuel Final Disposal Act in 2000 determines to bury nuclear waste in the underground. Literature survey, ...
Read more

Not A Royal Wedding

The bride called her husband an indispensable existence and their marriage was necessary choice to protect their mind. The groom insisted on his life as only once and his right to be with his loved one. Her father wanted his daughter’s marriage to be celebrated by the people. The people were not sure whether the family was happy as a whole. Is this the traditional Japanese social system that makes no one happy? Mako Komuro, as known as Princess Mako during her life in one of the royal family Akishino, held on Tuesday a press conference with her husband Kei Komuro, right after submitting marriage report to local government. It was something different from ordinary Q&A session, because Mako was afraid of her mental uneasiness brought by some questions not based on truth. So, the event was actually one-sided speech to the reporters. Mako emphasized that the Kei’s decision of studying abroad five years ago had not been his original idea, but a result of her request to establish an over...
Read more