Japan Special Diet Session to Start Feb. 18

Tokyo, Feb. 10 (Jiji Press)–The Diet, Japan’s parliament, is set to be convened for a special session Feb. 18, when Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is expected to be re-elected leader of the country and launch her second cabinet. The government presented the special session opening schedule to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, on Tuesday. LDP Diet affairs chief Hiroshi Kajiyama then explained the plan at a meeting with Hirofumi Ryu and Yasuhiro Nakagawa, co-heads of Diet affairs from the opposition Centrist Reform Alliance. The Takaichi cabinet is expected to resign en masse at its extraordinary meeting on the first day of the Diet session. An election for the prime minister will take place in both Diet chambers later that day. The special session will follow Sunday’s general election for the House of Representatives, the all-important lower chamber of the Diet, in which the LDP secured a stunning victory. JIP leader Hirofumi Yoshimura, also governor of Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, told reporters at the prefectural government office Tuesday that his party will offer a lawmaker to serve as a cabinet member at the request of Takaichi. Yoshimura said the prime minister told him in a phone call Monday night that she wants the JIP to join her cabinet at its next reshuffle, to which he replied that he believes his party should do so. There was no discussion on the timing of the appointment or the position to be filled by a JIP lawmaker, according to Yoshimura. “We already share responsibilities and work in the Diet,” Yoshimura told reporters. “I believe that we should do this in the cabinet as well so that our party can act as the gas pedal for the Takaichi administration.” The JIP will make a final decision on the matter at a meeting of party executives to be held soon. The special Diet session will run for 150 days through July 17, the same length as an ordinary session. The prime minister, and the foreign, finance and economy ministers are set to deliver policy speeches Feb. 20. After question-and-answer sessions on the speeches in both chambers of the Diet, the parliament will start deliberations on the government’s draft budget for fiscal 2026, which begins in April. The legislative branch has been unable to begin discussions on the budget bill because of the Jan. 23 dissolution of the Lower House and the subsequent general election. As a result, the draft budget is very unlikely to be passed before the start of the new fiscal year. To cope with the situation, the government intends to compile a stopgap budget. A bill to establish a national intelligence agency to bolster the country’s intelligence activities is also expected to be deliberated in the special Diet session. The ruling bloc will seek to submit a bill to establish the nation’s secondary capital that would take over Tokyo’s functions in the event that the capital is devastated by a disaster, aiming to enact the legislation during the special session. Another focus in the upcoming session is reform of the Lower House electoral system, including a possible reduction in the chamber’s seats, which currently total 465. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]