Diet Debates Start on Japan FY 2026 Extra Budget

Tokyo, June 3 (Jiji Press)–Parliamentary discussions on the Japanese government’s draft fiscal 2026 supplementary budget, aimed at addressing impacts from Middle East tensions, kicked off Wednesday. At a plenary meeting of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama delivered a fiscal policy address, followed by a question-and-answer session among representatives from both the ruling and opposition camps. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has been calling for the draft budget to be enacted swiftly. General-account spending under the extra budget totals 3,113.5 billion yen, which will be used mainly to launch new reserve funds for measures responding to the Middle East turmoil, including those to deal with higher energy prices. A question-and-answer session will take place at a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, as well on Wednesday. Budget debates will also be held at the budget committees of both chambers. The draft budget is expected to be approved by the Lower House on Thursday and enacted at the Upper House on Friday. Meanwhile, three opposition parties–the Centrist Reform Alliance, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Komeito–submitted a modified draft supplementary budget with 2.5-trillion-yen spending to the Diet on Wednesday. The three parties criticized the government draft for violating the spirit of fiscal democracy, which is stipulated in the Constitution, as reserve funds account for 97 pct of the total spending. The opposition draft includes 900 billion yen as resources for local grants for supporting small companies, far larger than 100 billion yen planned under the government budget bill. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]