Japan’s Budget on Track for Quick Passage, but Ruling Parties to Face Stronger Opposition in Upper House

The Yomiuri Shimbun

21:00 JST, March 14, 2026

To avoid hindering people’s daily lives, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi insisted that the fiscal 2026 budget proposal be passed in the House of Representatives on Friday, so it could be enacted by the end of the month.

March 13 was seen as the lower house deadline for the budget’s passage to stay on schedule, according to an Liberal Democratic Party official. Therefore, the LDP rejected a proposal by the Democratic Party for the People to hold the vote on March 16 in exchange for its support for the budget.

Criticism from opposition parties has intensified, particularly over the ruling coalition shortening the deliberation period in the lower house’s budget committee from the typical one month or so to just two weeks.

Deliberations are expected to become tangled in the House of Councillors. Of the total 248 seats (with one vacancy), the ruling coalition groups — the LDP and the Japan Innovation Party — hold only 120 seats when combined, falling short of a majority.

“They [the ruling coalition] have obstinately prioritized passage within this fiscal year over fair proceedings,” said Shinichi Isa of the Centrist Reform Alliance, reading out a statement on the motion to dismiss the lower house’s budget committee chairman, Tetsushi Sakamoto, an LDP member, during the lower house’s plenary session on Friday.

Isa criticized the ruling parties for forcing the deliberations at the budget committee to proceed at their pace. The number of days for intensive deliberations attended by the prime minister were fewer than usual, and subcommittees to discuss the details of the budget for each ministry were not convened for the first time in 37 years.

As Takaichi dissolved the lower house in January, budget deliberations in the Diet began on Feb. 27, about one month later than usual. These deliberations usually last for about one month each in the lower and upper houses, so the budget’s enactment was expected to be delayed until late April. However, Takaichi expressed determination to pass it within the current fiscal year.

The ruling coalition, which won an overwhelming number of seats in the recent lower house election, cut down the period of questioning at the budget committee from the customary 70-80 hours to approximately 59 hours. The previous record, under the current deliberation style, was 66 hours and 30 minutes set in 2007. Regional public hearings – where lawmakers travel to local areas to gather opinions from experts – were held on weekends for the first time, to secure more time in the week for the deliberations.

As part of an attempt to dictate the pace of proceedings in the upper house, the ruling coalition aims to win over independent lawmakers and members of the Conservative Party of Japan who cast votes for Takaichi in the prime ministerial nomination election in February.

On Friday, LDP upper house Diet affairs committee chief Yoshihiko Isozaki met with his counterpart of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Yoshitaka Saito, at the Diet, and agreed to begin substantive deliberations at the upper house’s budget committee on Monday.

As to the period of deliberations and the number of intensive deliberation sessions, Saito said, “We received a definite promise that substantive deliberations would be carried out as in other years.”

Among LDP lawmakers in the upper house, some have expressed concern that “if more time for deliberation is allocated in consideration of the opposition, the budget’s passage could be delayed until April.”