Opposition Parties Vow to Boycott Lower House Proceedings

Tokyo, June 26 (Jiji Press)–Japanese opposition parties are poised to boycott all proceedings in the House of Representatives after the Lower House steering committee decided on Friday, without their agreement, to leave the Lower House seat reduction and second capital bills to relevant committees. The bills, both submitted by the ruling bloc, are designed to reduce the number of Lower House seats and to create a secondary capital in Japan, respectively. The special committee on political reform decided to hold a session on the seat reduction bill on Monday, and the special committee on regional revitalization decided to meet to discuss the second capital bill on Tuesday. The decisions were made under the authority of each committee’s chairman from the ruling bloc. On the same day, five opposition parties–the Centrist Reform Alliance, the Democratic Party for the People, Sanseito, Team Mirai and the Japanese Communist Party–held a meeting of their Diet affairs chiefs. The CRA’s Kazuhiko Shigetoku told reporters later, “We decided not to take part in any plenary or committee sessions.” The opposition camp is already refusing to discuss a new schedule in the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, where the ruling Liberal Democratic Party-Japan Innovation Party coalition lacks a majority. In the Upper House, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and other opposition parties are demanding a Budget Committee meeting with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in attendance, but the LDP is rejecting this demand. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]