The Lower House on Wednesday overrode the Upper House's rejection of a ¥1.78 trillion supplementary budget for fiscal 2007 and rammed it through the Diet, the first such move pertaining to an extra budget in 15 years.
The Upper House, which is controlled by the opposition, had rejected the extra budget earlier in the day. But the more powerful Lower House, controlled by the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling coalition, used its power under Article 60 of the Constitution to pass it anyway.
Article 60 says that if the two chambers can't agree over the budget, the Lower House decision prevails.