Takaichi Administration Plans to Extend Diet Session

Tokyo, July 15 (Jiji Press)–The administration of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has decided to extend the current Diet session beyond Friday to ensure that bills, including one to establish a secondary capital in the country, will be enacted during the session, informed sources said Wednesday. The Diet session will be extended for around a week until July 24 or 27, according to the sources. The secondary capital bill, championed by the Japan Innovation Party, the junior coalition partner of Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party, cleared the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, on Wednesday, but it remains uncertain when the House of Councillors, the upper chamber, will begin deliberations on the bill. The ruling bloc plans to decide on an extension of the session at a Lower House plenary meeting on Friday. On Wednesday, Yoshihiko Isozaki, the LDP’s parliamentary affairs chief in the Upper House, met with Yoshitaka Saito, the Diet affairs chief of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. Saito urged the ruling bloc to reconsider the deliberation schedule assuming no extension of the session, and Isozaki accepted this. Following the meeting, proceedings, including a vote on a bill to revise the national referendum law in the Upper House Commission on the Constitution on the day, were postponed. The revision bill is expected to be enacted during an extended session. The secondary capital bill passed through the Lower House with support from the LDP-JIP coalition and Team Mirai. However, the ruling parties’ 120 seats and Team Mirai’s two seats fall short of a majority of 124 seats in the Upper House. The ruling bloc aims to gather support from independent lawmakers in the Upper House to enact the bill. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]