Japan Lower House OKs FY 2026 Budget Bill

Tokyo, March 13 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s House of Representatives passed the government’s fiscal 2026 budget bill on Friday after unusually short deliberations as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi aims to get it through the Diet before the end of fiscal 2025 on March 31. At a Lower House plenary meeting in the evening, the budget bill was approved by a majority vote, with support from the Liberal Democratic Party-Japan Innovation Party coalition. It was then sent to the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, where the ruling bloc lacks a majority. The budget bill calls for general-account spending of 122,309.2 billion yen, a record high, in line with Takaichi’s advocacy of “responsible and proactive” fiscal policy. The budget bill was put to a full Lower House vote after clearing the Lower House Budget Committee earlier in the day. Prior to the committee vote, an opposition-submitted motion to dismiss the committee’s chairman, Tetsushi Sakamoto of the LDP, was voted down at a plenary meeting of the chamber. During the committee’s closing question-and-answer session on the budget bill, Takaichi sought understanding for her aim to swiftly pass the bill, saying, “The ruling and opposition parties agree that everything is for the people’s peace of mind.” Also on Friday, the LDP and the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan agreed at a meeting of their Diet affairs chiefs in the Upper House to begin full-fledged deliberations on the budget bill in the chamber’s Budget Committee on Monday. The Upper House committee is expected to hold a basic question-and-answer session with Takaichi and all cabinet members in attendance on Tuesday, and the prime minister will face the committee for general questions the following day. The CDP and other opposition parties have demanded sufficient deliberation time, warning that they may not allow deliberations to start on Monday if the ruling bloc steamrolls the budget bill through the Lower House. At Friday’s meeting, LDP Diet affairs head Yoshihiko Isozaki said that the ruling bloc will respect the opposition demand. His CDP counterpart, Yoshitaka Saito, said that the ruling bloc “clearly promised” to hold sufficient deliberations as usual. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]