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Japan Gears Up For July 10 Election With End Of Diet Session

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Japan wrapped up its 150-day regular Diet session Wednesday, with the ruling and opposition parties swinging into high gear for the House of Councillors election set for July 10.

The cabinet of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida decided on the date of the election as well as the start of official campaigning on June 22, with the triennial race likely to focus on measures to ease the impact of rising prices and revive the economy hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

The election will take place as Japan gradually eases COVID-19 restrictions and reopens to the rest of the world, having recently started procedures to resume accepting foreign tourists after a two-year hiatus.

On the diplomatic front, the government's response to Russia's war on Ukraine, a rising China, and the North Korean missile and nuclear threats will likely be brought under the spotlight.

"Finally the upper house election is about to commence," Kishida told executives of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party. "I will continue my efforts as we have a mountain of big issues."

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said in a press conference, "The government will steadily tackle domestic issues and diplomatic challenges," referring to efforts to resume socioeconomic activities in stages and respond to rising oil and food prices as well as Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Kishida and his LDP, which currently controls both chambers of parliament with its ruling coalition partner Komeito, are seeking to solidify support to pave the way for the implementation of key policies and achieve a more stable government.

Kishida, who took office last October, is expected to hold a press conference later in the day to talk up his achievements as prime minister and express his resolve to lead the governing coalition to victory in the election.

In the upcoming election, half of the upper house's 248 seats will be up for grabs, of which 50 will be chosen under the proportional representation system and the rest from electoral districts.

The LDP-led ruling bloc and the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan have already clashed, with the CDPJ submitting no-confidence motions against the cabinet of Kishida and House of Representatives Speaker Hiroyuki Hosoda days before the end of the Diet session.

The CDPJ criticized the cabinet's lack of response to rising prices and Hosoda, who is mired in a sexual harassment scandal, as unfit to lead the powerful House of Representatives or lower house. However, the motions were voted down by the ruling coalition.

Kishida has received a boost with the Diet enacting all 61 pieces of legislation submitted by the government, including bills on enhancing the country's economic security and on setting up a new agency tasked with comprehensively overlooking policies on children.

It was the first time since the ordinary session in 1996 for parliament to enact all of the legislation submitted by the government.

But the LDP is facing another scandal involving a lower house member who resigned from the party last week following a magazine report that he went out for drinks with a girl aged 18, which is below the legal drinking age in Japan, and gave her 40,000 yen. The lawmaker had belonged to a party faction led by Kishida.



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