Emboldened by Election Victory, LDP Demands Key Diet Posts

Tokyo, Feb. 17 (Jiji Press)--Emboldened by a historic victory in the Feb. 8 House of Representatives election, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is demanding to retake key parliamentary posts.

The LDP, which was a minority force before the general election, now controls over two-thirds of the 465 seats in the all-important lower chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament.

The party is working to regain key positions within the Diet, such as the head of the Lower House Budget Committee, as well as trying to shorten deliberations so as to enact the government's regular budget for fiscal 2026 as soon as possible.

On Monday, LDP Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki, his counterpart at the Japan Innovation Party, Hiroshi Nakatsuka, and others affirmed at a meeting in Tokyo that the ruling camp still aims to pass the budget within the current fiscal year ending in March despite the supertight schedule.

Budget deliberations at the two Diet chambers usually take about two months. Many believe that the fiscal 2026 budget cannot be enacted by the end of fiscal 2025, given a delay in budget-related proceedings due to last month's Lower House dissolution for the unusual February election.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]