Budget Bill Revisions: Discussions by Ruling, Opposition Parties Are Far from Deliberative

Editorial

15:50 JST, March 2, 2025

The minority ruling coalition is scrambling to secure sufficient support, as it says the administration will not be able to hold on to power unless the budget bill gains Diet approval. Meanwhile, the opposition parties appear to be basing their decision about working with the ruling bloc on whether the cooperation will be advantageous or disadvantageous for them in the House of Councillors election to be held this summer.

The role of the Diet cannot be fulfilled if lawmakers make light of discussing the appropriateness of policy measures and the financial resources to fund these measures.

The ruling and opposition parties are entering the final stage of discussions on the fiscal 2025 budget and tax reform-related legislation.

The Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito have reached an agreement with the Japan Innovation Party regarding a measure to make high school tuition free. The budget bill looks certain to pass the House of Representatives and be enacted.

On the other hand, talks between the ruling coalition of the LDP and Komeito and the opposition Democratic Party for the People on raising the “annual income barrier,” the threshold above which income tax is imposed, broke down after the DPFP objected to setting an income cap.

As the situation remains unchanged, the legislation related to the tax system will not be approved by the lower house, so the LDP and Komeito have given up on cooperating with the DPFP and begun approaching the JIP.

The approach taken by the administration of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba of seeking cooperation from the opposition parties at random is deplorable. Discussions on the effects of free high school education and the raising of the annual income barrier have been put on the back burner, and this could cause problems in the future.

The JIP and the DPFP, which have only insisted on expanding benefits and left the task of finding ways to secure funds to the government, cannot be called responsible political parties.

The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan has demanded that the budget bill cover funding for measures to counter rising prices, which would require a total of just under ¥4 trillion. The opposition party has proposed a plan to raise the money needed to implement the measures from financial sources such as reserve funds. However, such funds, which are set aside to deal with medium- to long-term policy issues, should not be used carelessly.

Taking advantage of the weakness of the minority ruling coalition, the CDPJ, JIP and other parties have called on the ruling camp to promise that senior members of the defunct LDP faction formerly led by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be summoned as unsworn witnesses as a precondition for agreeing to vote on the budget bill.

The opposition parties apparently intend to continue pursuing political funds problems involving the LDP, but it is completely off the point to link the vote on the budget with the issue of politics and money.

Meanwhile, the opposition parties’ moves toward cooperating in preparation for the upper house election are stagnating.

The JIP has proposed holding primaries to unify opposition candidates for the 32 constituencies across the nation where one seat is up for grabs. The proposal reportedly calls for conducting online surveys in the constituencies and making the most popular figure a single candidate of the opposition parties in each constituency.

The CDPJ is positive about this idea, but other opposition parties are reluctant.

The opposition parties could work together for the election, but some people argue that such primaries could amount to campaigning in advance and announcing the results of a popularity contest — acts that are prohibited by the Public Offices Election Law. The idea of having primaries cannot be called realistic.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, March 2, 2025)