Japan Ruling, Opposition Parties at Odds over Extra Budget

Tokyo, May 31 (Jiji Press)--Japan's ruling and opposition parties are divided over the government's draft fiscal 2026 supplementary budget, for which parliamentary debates are set to start Wednesday.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hopes to have the extra budget enacted quickly.

While a majority of funds under the budget is planned to be earmarked as reserve money, opposition parties are demanding that emergency economic measures be included in the budget as well.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party, headed by Takaichi, and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, aim to enact the draft budget Friday. But it remains to be seen whether they can win understanding of the opposition side.

At a meeting Friday, Hiroshi Kajiyama, the LDP's parliamentary affairs chief, and his counterpart from the main opposition Centrist Reform Alliance, Kazuhiko Shigetoku, agreed that the draft budget will be debated at the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, or parliament, on Thursday and at the Budget Committee of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber, on Friday.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]