On to the upper house | This week in Japanese politics

The lower house passes a political reform bill, the honebuto takes shape, and trade ministers sign two agreements in Singapore

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After a delay, the House of Representatives passed the Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) political reform bill. The LDP may also be thinking about submitting a constitutional revision proposal before the session ends, although it may be dead on arrival. With the Diet session nearing its end, potential rivals may be preparing a direct challenge to Prime Minister Kishida Fumio. In the meantime, the Kishida government is finalizing its economic policy plans for FY 2025 ahead of the start of the budgetary process. Meanwhile, at a ministerial meeting in Singapore, members of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) signed two more agreements and the US and Japan are gearing up for talks on plans to strengthen operational coordination between the Self-Defense Forces and US forces in Japan. Plus: Japan’s latest demographic figures make for sobering reading.

Politics

The House of Representatives votes on the political reform bill. Source: LDP

The House of Representatives approved a political reform bill on Thursday, 6 June, after only thirteen hours of deliberation in the special committee on political reform. The bill’s passage was delayed after the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), having reached compromises with Kōmeitō and Ishin no Kai, made a mistake in the text of the legislation, resulting in having to revise the bill and resubmit it to the Diet. Prime Minister Kishida Fumio is pressing for the legislation to pass the Diet before the ordinary session ends on 23 June.

The bill as passed includes proposals from ruling and opposition parties. The compromise legislation passed by the lower house requires lawmakers to provide written certification of their financial reports and introduces criminal penalties if entries are found to be fraudulent or omitted; strengthens external oversight and transparency in reporting; lowers the threshold for reporting the identity of purchasers of fundraising party tickets to JPY 50,000 (USD ) (and prohibits cash purchases); and caps the amount of “policy activities funds” that can be spent in a year and requires lawmakers to disclose how the funds are used. The bill also included a proposal from the Democratic Party for the People that would suspend a portion of public funding for lawmakers who found to have violated campaign finance laws.

Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) leader Izumi Kenta shared his dissatisfaction with this legislative process and alluded to the possibility of a no-confidence motion towards the end of the session, which could delay the reform bill’s passage depending on the timing of a motion.

The Liberal Democratic Party may be contemplating submitting a proposal for revising the Constitution before the parliamentary session ends, as the prime minister may turn to constitutional revision as a way to fend off a challenge from the LDP’s right. Even if the LDP has the votes to move an amendment, submitting an amendment over the resistance of the Constitutional Democrats and other opposition parties would break from norms that dictated that constitutional revision should be a consensus-based process – potentially inviting backlash were revisions to pass the Diet and go to a national referendum. LDP Diet affairs chief Hamada Yasukazu admitted that it would be difficult for Kishida to fulfill his promise to revise the constitution before the end of his leadership term.