Ishiba Survives Ordinary Session of the Diet

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba managed to survive 150-day ordinary session of the Diet. The session started in January with a minority government in the Lower House. The main reason why Ishiba could come through the session was not because he was successful in policy talks with the opposition parties, but the opposition parties were too fragmented to drag him down from position of the prime minister. The coming Upper House election will be a true examination for Ishiba as the leader of the government.

 

The biggest concern for Ishiba at the beginning was how he would pass the annual budget by the end of March. To pass the budget bill, Ishiba needed some votes from the opposition parties in the House of Representatives. He had three choices: compromising with the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), with Democratic Party for the People (DPP) or with Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin-no Kai).

 

Cooperation with CDPJ, the biggest opposition party, means a grand coalition which modern Japanese politics has no example. The CDPJ had no reason to make that deal with the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the time when it has a good chance to defeat the LDP administration in coming elections. Ishiba refused to accept DPP’s demand to raise threshold of exempting income tax.

 

It was Ishin, led by co-leader Seiji Maehara, which offered a helping hand to Ishiba, rather than joining the oppositions’ effort to destroy Ishiba administration. As the leader of s small party for free high school tuition, Maehara had been serious about implementing his own policy even after assuming a co-leader of Ishin in October 2024. Ishin, under the leadership of Maehara, decided to vote for FY2025 budget, in return the LDP included policy for free high school tuition in FY2025 budget. The budget bill passed before the end of March.

 

Maehara played an important role in the second half of the session. The biggest issue in the second half was whether the opposition parties would submit a non-confidence resolution against Ishiba Cabinet. While the CDPJ leader, Yoshihiko Noda, was considering the submission, Maehara circulated his recognition that Ishiba would dissolve the House of Representatives right after the non-confidence resolution is submitted. That effectively meant double election of both Houses. Maehara has been maintaining a close relationship with Ishiba whenever he could make a telephone call to him. Most lawmakers thought that Maehara’s idea made sense. Noda finally decided not to submit non-confidence resolution against Ishiba, which might have caused resignation of Ishiba or dissolution of the Lower House.

 

It can hardly be said that Ishiba promoted his policies as he hoped through the Diet session. He failed in implementing his promise to conclude the issue of political donation from companies and organizations by the end of March. The LDP abandoned to pass a bill for introducing separate surname system. Ishiba did not reach an agreement on tariffs at the summit meeting with the U.S. President Donald Trump in Kananaskis, Canada, in mid-June. He will face a judgement of voters on those issues in the Upper House election in July.

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

Death Penalty Demanded on Criminal of Arson

On the historically brutal case of arson, the public prosecutors demanded an ultimate penalty to the offender. In the trial on the arson and murder in Kyoto Animation in 2019, the prosecutors requested death penalty on the defendant, Shinji Aoba. The lawyers of Aoba argued that the court should avoid sentencing death penalty. The judgement will be passed next January. Aoba was indicted as putting fire after pouring gasoline in the building of Kyoto Animation (Kyoani), a studio producing animation works, and killed 36 staffs and injured 32 on July 18 th , 2019. In the trial, Aoba argued that he could not tolerate Kyoani, because it had stolen his novel story in its works. Aoba later apologized to the victim’s families that he had done too much and regretted it.   In the closing argument in Kyoto Regional Court, the prosecutors demanded death penalty for Aoba, because the number of victims were extremely high in the history of criminal trials in Japan. “It is hard to describe about h...
Read more