Japan’s LDP, CRA Agree on Debate Schedule for Extra Budget

Tokyo, May 30 (Jiji Press)–The parliamentary affairs chiefs of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the main opposition Centrist Reform Alliance have agreed on a deliberation schedule for the government’s draft fiscal 2026 supplementary budget. At a meeting Friday, Hiroshi Kajiyama of the LDP and Kazuhiko Shigetoku of the CRA confirmed that the budget committees of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, or parliament, and the House of Councillors, the upper chamber, will each spend one day deliberating the extra budget for the fiscal year that started in April. The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition party in the Upper House, protested to the LDP and the CRA, complaining that the debate schedule for the upper chamber was decided by the Lower House side. Both Kajiyama and Shigetoku are Lower House members. According to the agreement between Kajiyama and Shigetoku, Diet deliberations on the draft extra budget will start Wednesday, when Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama will deliver a fiscal policy address at plenary meetings of both chambers, to be followed by question-and-answer sessions among representatives from both the ruling and opposition sides. The budget will be debated at the Lower House Budget Committee on Thursday and at the Upper House Budget Committee on Friday, with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi slated to take part in both committee meetings. The LDP hopes that the draft budget will be approved by the Lower House committee and at a plenary meeting of the chamber within Thursday. The party then aims to have the budget passed by the Upper House committee Friday and secure its enactment later in the day through a vote at an Upper House plenary meeting. Given that the opposition side initially demanded the draft budget be discussed for two days each at the budget committees of both chambers, Kajiyama and Shigetoku agreed that intensive debates will be held at the committees in June. All CRA lawmakers are members of the Lower House. The party was launched before the Feb. 8 Lower House general election by then Lower House members of the CDP. Meanwhile, the CDP has no Lower House members, with all of its lawmakers being members of the upper chamber. Later on Friday, a meeting was held between Yoshihiko Isozaki, the LDP’s Diet affairs chief in the Upper House, and Yoshitaka Saito, Diet affairs head of the CDP. Saito said, “It is difficult to accept (the agreement by the Lower House side) at the moment.” Isozaki apologized, saying, “We have caused misunderstanding.” Saito reiterated his party’s demand that Upper House deliberations on the draft budget be held for two days. He also requested that intensive debates take place in not only June but also July if only one day is secured for budget discussions at the chamber. The LDP and the CDP will hold talks again early next week. At board meetings of the steering committees of both parliamentary chambers Friday, the government officially presented a plan to submit the draft fiscal 2026 supplementary budget to the Diet on Wednesday. The extra budget, with general-account spending of 3,113.5 billion yen, is mainly intended to increase reserve funds amid persistent Middle East tensions. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]