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.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]