Japan Govt to Consider Stopgap Budget: Takaichi

Tokyo, March 23 (Jiji Press)–Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Monday that the government will consider compiling a stopgap budget, based on the assumption that its fiscal 2026 regular budget will not be passed by the March 31 end of fiscal 2025. Takaichi, who heads the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, told a party executive meeting, “We’ll consider compiling a stopgap budget in preparation for unexpected events.” It would be the first time in 11 years for the government to put together a provisional budget. Takaichi reiterated her intention to continue aiming for the passage of the draft fiscal 2026 budget within this month. Still, she apparently reached a conclusion that it would be better to show a flexible stance to opposition parties since the LDP and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, lack a majority in the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, Japan’s parliament. The budget bill has cleared the House of Representatives, the lower Diet chamber, where the ruling parties have an overwhelming majority, and is now being debated at the Upper House. Opposition parties, including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, have requested sufficient deliberations on the regular budget at the Upper House and the compilation of a stopgap budget, and threatened to boycott Upper House debates on the full budget and related bills unless the ruling side accepts the opposition demands. Earlier on Monday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara met with Masaji Matsuyama, head of the LDP’s Upper House lawmakers, and other party members. While the LDP officials briefed Kihara on the progress in the Upper House deliberations on the budget, the top government spokesman informed them of the administration’s intention to consider compiling a provisional budget. Following this, Yoshitaka Saito, the CDP’s Diet affairs chief, told his LDP counterpart, Yoshihiko Isozaki, that the CDP is ready to accept budget deliberations at the Upper House and called for the early compilation of a stopgap budget. After the Saito-Isozaki meeting, the Upper House Budget Committee at a board meeting decided to hold intensive budget deliberations Wednesday after receiving a detailed explanation from Takaichi about her White House meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump last week. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]