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The Yomiuri Shimbun Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, right, shakes hands with the new U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass at the Foreign Ministry on Monday.
The Yomiuri Shimbun
14:43 JST, April 26, 2025
The House of Councillors’ Rules and Administration Committee at its board meeting on Friday withheld consent for Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and two other cabinet ministers to travel abroad during the upcoming Golden Week holidays.
A director from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) objected to the trips, citing a need to focus on measures against rising prices. The move is seen as an effort by the opposition party to project a confrontational stance toward the government with an eye toward this summer’s upper house election.
When the Diet is in session, the deputy chief cabinet secretary customarily notifies both chambers’ rules and administration committees in advance of any ministerial overseas trip. Such trips can proceed without formal consent, and it is unusual for objections to be voiced at a board meeting.
“Is overseas travel really necessary when we have to prioritize countermeasures against soaring prices?” the CDPJ director asked in opposition to trips planned by three of the 14 Cabinet ministers — Iwaya, Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki, and Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Toshiko Abe.
Although all three itineraries were approved at a board meeting of the House of Representatives’ Rules and Administration Committee, a CDPJ director of that committee expressed reservations about some ministers traveling abroad.
Iwaya departed as scheduled on Friday and will visit five countries, including the United States, through May 4. After attending Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican, he will travel to New York to deliver a speech at a meeting related to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
He is then slated to hold foreign minister talks in Senegal, Saudi Arabia and France to exchange views on U.S. tariff measures, the Middle East peace process and the situation in Ukraine.
Before leaving, Iwaya told reporters only that he wished “to carry out necessary diplomatic activities while keeping the impact on the Diet to a minimum.”
As international affairs grow more complex and diplomacy gains importance, some question the CDPJ’s opposition to the oversea trips. “Canceling the diplomatic schedule would hurt the national interest,” said a mid-level Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker. “Citing inflation measures is nothing more than campaign posturing for the upper house election.”
