KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is still pushing to pass the FY2026 budget in the lower house by 13 March over the resistance of opposition parties.
- The government’s push to move the budget through the lower house is driven by the awareness that it is running out of time to pass the budget before the end of the fiscal year, but it could backfire in that the opposition, which has a majority in the upper house, could be more inclined to resist a speedy debate in the House of Councillors.
- The debate over the budget’s passage reveals the tension between Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae’s parliamentary strength and longstanding norms of Japanese democracy, a tension that will be a factor in subsequent debates.
Japan Foresight 