Opposition forces Wednesday passed a censure motion in the Upper House against Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda — the first such motion ever passed under the postwar Constitution. To counter the censure motion, the ruling forces in the Lower House gave Mr. Fukuda a vote of confidence Thursday. The two moves sharpen the confrontation between the ruling and opposition blocs.
The opposition forces hoped that the censure motion would help corner Mr. Fukuda into dissolving the Lower House for general elections. But he made it clear that he won't do so. The Upper House motion has no binding power — unlike a no-confidence vote against a prime minister in the Lower House.
Still, the passing of the censure motion means that the Upper House has branded Mr. Fukuda as unqualified as prime minister. In the censure motion, opposition forces accused Mr. Fukuda of rejecting a call for abolishing the newly introduced, unpopular health insurance plan for people aged 75 or over, reviving the surcharges on gasoline and other road-related taxes, which had been abolished at the end of March, and failing to resolve the problem of identifying some pension premium payment records.