Parties spar as upper house campaign nears | This Week in Japanese Politics

Another leaders' debate, the Tokyo assembly campaign begins, and the US and Japan trade talks continue

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The rundown

With the likelihood of a no-confidence motion and double election receding, the ruling and opposition parties are stepping up their preparations — and attacks — ahead of the upper house elections, which will likely be held on 20 July. Party leaders previewed their attacks in a leaders’ debate on 11 June, while the parties will test their arguments on the campaign trail for the 22 June Tokyo metropolitan assembly elections. The government approved its Basic Policy for Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform ahead of the budgetary process for next year, ,while Agriculture Minister Koizumi Shinjirō met with retail industry leaders to discuss how to widen the distribution of rice from government stockpiles. Meanwhile, the US government approved Nippon Steel’s bid for US Steel, with an important condition, while a Japanese company signed an agreement to increase its purchases of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US, but another round of US-Japan trade talks did not appear to yield a breakthrough. Plus: the Bank of Japan hints that it might pare back its reductions in bond purchases. All of this and (much) more in a new, extra-long This Week in Japanese Politics.