Japan Ruling-Opposition Talks Reaching Critical Point

Jiji Press

12:53 JST, February 11, 2025

Tokyo, Feb. 11 (Jiji Press)—Talks between Japan’s ruling coalition and opposition parties on some key policies are poised to reach a critical juncture as the governing pair aims to enact the state budget for the fiscal year starting in April within the current fiscal 2024, which ends March 31.

For its enactment by the end of March, the fiscal 2025 budget bill, now being debated at the House of Representatives, needs to clear the Lower House on March 2 at the latest. The Lower House passage will be followed by discussions at the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, Japan’s parliament.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, Komeito, are working to strike agreements by mid-February with Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party) and the Democratic Party for the People on policy demands from the opposition side.

“We hope to ensure the enactment of the government budget and other bills after winning understanding from many members of the public and support from many political parties over issues including (a revision of) the 1.03-million-yen taxable income threshold and free education,” Prime Minister and LDP President Shigeru Ishiba, who leads a minority government, said at a meeting of LDP executives Monday.

On the same day, officials from the ruling parties and Nippon Ishin, including their policy chiefs, discussed the opposition party’s proposal to make high school education free of charge.

But they failed to reach an accord on the timing of applying the tuition-free program to families with students of private high schools and the level of support for them.

Nippon Ishin policy chief Hitoshi Aoyagi called for concessions from the ruling side. He told reporters: “We are in talks keeping in mind issues including whether we should vote for or against the budget bill. We ask for a political decision (from the ruling coalition).”

Nippon Ishin is also demanding reductions in social security premiums as a condition for voting for the draft budget.

In response, a senior LDP official voiced frustration, saying, “I wonder if Nippon Ishin is ready to conclude the talks by the middle of this month?”

Meanwhile, policy heads of the LDP, Komeito and the DPFP are expected to resume talks soon on raising the minimum annual taxable income level from the current ¥1.03 million .

The DPFP has demanded so far that the threshold be raised to ¥1.78 million .

But DPFP leader Yuichiro Tamaki, who has been suspended from the post due to a scandal, said in a YouTube program Saturday that the idea of raising the threshold to at least a level slightly exceeding ¥1.5 million is gradually gaining a consensus.

Komeito policy chief Mitsunari Okamoto has suggested that raising the annual threshold to 1.4 million to ¥1.49 million could be an option.

The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan is expected to submit a proposal to amend the fiscal 2025 draft budget shortly.

The LDP and Komeito plan to hold talks with the CDP among their policy chiefs.

The CDP is calling for a former accountant of the now-defunct LDP faction once led by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to be summoned to the Lower House Budget Committee as an unsworn witness over the party’s high-profile slush funds scandal.

At a press conference in the western Japan city of Wakayama on Sunday, CDP leader Yoshihiko Noda indicated the party’s stance of not linking the possible summoning with parliamentary debates on the draft budget.

“We won’t be able to gain public understanding if we try to block the enactment of the budget because the summoning (of the former accountant for unsworn testimony) is not realized,” Noda said.

Still, attention is being paid to whether the summoning will materialize, as opposition parties are united over the matter, political watchers said.