On March 31, Japan’s National Diet enacted a budget bill for fiscal year of 2025 with a majority vote of the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito, with the support of Nippon Ishin (the Japan Innovation Party) after multiple revisions in both the Lower and Upper Houses. The fiscal 2025 budget reached a record high of 115.20 trillion yen ($770 billion), and it was the first time for the Japanese government to enact a budget bill after revisions approved by the House of Councillors and then the House of Representatives under the current constitution. The enactment, which took place on the final day of fiscal year 2024, represented a hard-won victory for the minority government of Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru.

The power balance in the National Diet in the Ishiba administration drastically changed after the Lower House election on October 27, 2024. As a result of the election, the LDP-Komeito coalition government was not able to maintain majority in the House of Representatives, and the LDP ended up as a “minority ruling party” that needs cooperation by opposition parties for lawmaking and legislative processes. 

Prior to the Ishiba government, budget bills were automatically enacted with a solid majority in the Diet. During the Budget Committee, the Ishiba administration was faced with objections not only by opposition parties, but also by some LDP Diet members in the Upper House. The budget bill passed the Lower House on March 4, 2025, but it needed to be revised based on requests by opposition parties, the first time this had happened in 29 years. The revised budget bill was supported by the LDP, Komeito, and Nippon Ishin, although an alternative budget bill, submitted by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the second-largest party in the National Diet, was not approved.

A significant agenda item in current Japanese politics is........

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