Diet Session End Pushed Off to July 25

Tokyo, July 17 (Jiji Press)–The House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, on Friday approved an eight-day extension of the current session until July 25. During the extension, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party-Japan Innovation Party coalition aims to enact a JIP-championed bill to establish a secondary capital in the country, after Friday’s passage of a bill to revise the Imperial House Law, the ruling bloc’s top priority. This is the first time a Diet session has been extended since November 2024. Opposition parties including the Centrist Reform Alliance opposed the eight-day extension. The ruling bloc hopes to enact the secondary capital bill by July 24. Although Team Mirai is also expected to support the bill, the ruling bloc and the opposition party are still two seats short of a majority in the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet. If the bill fails in the Upper House, the ruling bloc plans to enact it using its two-thirds majority in the Lower House. In the Upper House, six opposition parties, including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, have agreed to vote against the bill. Meanwhile, the LDP and the CRA agreed at a meeting of their Diet affairs chiefs on Friday to hold a Lower House Budget Committee meeting on July 24 with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in attendance. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]