Annual Budget Bill Passes Lower House

The FY2026 budget bill passed the Lower House and was sent to the Upper House on March 13. To prove her decision for February snap election of the Lower House to be good, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi pushed the leading parties to accelerate the discussion on the budget bill as fast as possible. Backed by supermajority of her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the bill passed the Lower House within an extremely short period. It is still unclear, however, whether the bill will pass the Upper House by the end of March, as the prime minister hopes.

Takaichi Cabinet submitted FY2026 budget bill to the Lower House on February 20 this year. The House’s Committee on Budget started discussion for it on February 27. Questions by senior members were made on February 27, March 2 and 3. For this scheduling, there was a consensus between leading and opposition parties.

 

However, rest of the schedule was mostly made by unilateral decision of chairman of the committee, Tetsushi Sakamoto, who was from the LDP. He set discussion on the matters of each ministry on March 4 to 6, local public hearing on March 8 and public hearing in the Diet on March 10. Sakamoto unilaterally set them only with approval of leading parties, dismissing requests from opposition parties for further discussion.

 

Sakamoto unilaterally decided to finish the budget discussion on March 13 and the leading parties endorsed it. As its result, the time spent for the bill in the committee was 59 hours, marking the shortest record in these twenty years. It has been usual for Lower House budget committee to spend about 80 hours for an annual budget bill.

 

On the background of Sakamoto’s prerogative handling of the committee, there was a pressure of Takaichi to shorten the discussion. At the beginning of discussion, the LDP has set a deadline of the budget bill to pass the Lower House on March 13. She thought it possible by using supermajority of LDP in the House.

 

Furthermore, she wanted less opportunity to answer the question in the committee. Takaichl tends to make inappropriate speech in the Diet. She unnecessarily said that Taiwan contingency might enable Japan to use force in the last fall session of the Diet. In current session, she said that imperial succession would be limited to male offspring in the male line, wrongly quoting an experts’ report in the past. Sakamoto reduced Takaichi’s speech in the committee, letting other ministers answer to the questions from opposition parties.

 

Accusing the chairman of his handlings, opposition parties submitted the House a non-confidence resolution against Sakamoto. But it was dismissed with majority oppositions of the leading parties. The budget bill was approved with majority of leading parties in the committee on March 13, as scheduled, and passed the House with an overwhelming approval in Plenary Sittings later of the day.

 

The leading parties do not have majority in the Upper House. For Takaichi, the budget bill needs to pass the Upper House by the end of March, although the bill will automatically be approved on April 12, even if the Upper House opposes. The leading coalition needs four additional votes to reach a simple majority in Upper House.

 

On the other hand, the opposition parties are not united enough to block the bill. Some opposition parties have a concern about public criticism against delaying of the annual budget bill which includes economic stimulus measures. The struggle between the parties in the Upper House will be intensified to the end of this month. 

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