LDP abandons fiscal 2026 budget passage this week

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Wednesday gave up on enacting the government’s fiscal 2026 budget bill this week.

Senior members of the LDP and the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP) agreed to hold a general question-and-answer session on the bill during Friday’s meeting of the Upper House Budget Committee, effectively putting a vote off until next week.

The CDP conveyed to the LDP side that holding an intensive deliberation session attended by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is a precondition for agreeing to put the bill to a vote.

Yoshihiko Isozaki, the LDP’s Diet affairs chief in the Upper House, asked his CDP counterpart, Yoshitaka Saito, to cooperate on the bill’s enactment as soon as possible.

Saito demanded intensive deliberations attended by Takaichi, saying, “Unless the prime minister attends the Upper House Budget Committee, there is absolutely no possibility of proceeding to a vote on the budget bill.”

Isozaki said he would take the matter back to his party for further consideration.

In the Upper House Budget Committee, intensive deliberations were held for only four hours on March 25. “I think it will be difficult to reach a vote after just four hours” of intensive deliberations, Isozaki told reporters after his meeting with Saito.

Takaichi has indicated to senior Upper House members that she is reluctant to attend an intensive deliberation session.

Upper House committees will hold in-depth deliberations on the regular budget on Wednesday and Thursday. The budget will automatically be enacted by April 11, even if the Upper House fails to vote on it by then, due to the Lower House’s constitutional supremacy.

Takaichi had sought to enact the budget bill on Friday.

Meanwhile, LDP Diet affairs chief Hiroshi Kajiyama and his counterpart from the opposition Centrist Reform Alliance, Kazuhiko Shigetoku, held talks separately. Shigetoku asked the LDP side to hold intensive deliberations in the Lower House Budget Committee on Middle East tensions, and a monthly debate of party leaders.