Tag - lower-house

 
 

LOWER HOUSE

Locals fill up bottles from a communal water tank in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 30, 2024, following the Noto Peninsula earthquake on New Year's Day.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 18, 2025
Lower House passes bill on peninsular disaster prevention
The bill is centered around advancing disaster prevention efforts that take into consideration the unique geographic features of such regions.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is under fire for giving gift certificates worth ¥100,000 each to lawmakers newly elected to the House of Representatives last year.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 16, 2025
Past prime ministers customarily gave gift certificates, lawmaker says
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is under fire for giving gift certificates worth ¥100,000 each to lawmakers newly elected to the House of Representatives.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks to reporters at the prime minister's official residence on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 14, 2025
Opposition blasts Ishiba over gift certificates given to LDP lawmakers
Ishiba gave gift certificates worth ¥100,000 each to over 10 new lawmakers, sources have said. The prime minister apologized but said the move was not illegal.
Natsumi Sakai, a Lower House member of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, during an interview in parliament last month
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 4, 2025
Gender equality in politics remains elusive in Japan
Japan has a long way to go before fully achieving gender equality in politics.
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan head Yoshihiko Noda speaks at the party's convention in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 26, 2025
Is time running out for CDP in budget talks with the ruling coalition?
Concerns have emerged that the main opposition party might have lost its bargaining chip after Nippon Ishin no Kai clinched a deal with the minority government.
Voters cast their ballots for the Lower House election at a polling station in Tokyo on Oct. 27.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 26, 2025
Three more courts find 2024 Lower House election constitutional
The plaintiffs had claimed that the maximum vote-value gap of 2.06 times in the election violated the Constitution.
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki speaks to reporters at the parliamentary building on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 19, 2025
Japan's justice minister admits to giving mooncakes to staff
The minister could be accused of violating the public office election law if the ministry staff who received the cakes include residents of the southern Kanto region.
At the Naha branch of Fukuoka High Court, presiding Judge Takashi Miura said that the constituency map redrawn for the election was reasonable as it adopted the so-called Adams method, which is believed to reflect population ratios more accurately.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 18, 2025
Fukuoka High Court's Naha branch finds 2024 Lower House poll constitutional
It was the seventh ruling among the 16 lawsuits on the latest general election filed so far by two groups of lawyers at 14 high courts and high court branches.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba talks with executives of his Liberal Democratic Party in the parliament building in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 11, 2025
Japan's ruling-opposition talks reach a critical point
For its enactment by the end of March, the fiscal 2025 budget bill needs to clear the Lower House on March 2, at the latest.
According to the National Police Agency, 99% of speech venues during last year’s House of Representatives election had baggage inspections carried out.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 4, 2025
Election speech sites step up security after failed 2023 Kishida attack
The National Police Agency has applied greater pressure on speech organizers to enforce security measures following the 2023 failed attack on former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, along with other members of the imperial family, attend the spring garden party at Akasaka Palace  in Tokyo in April last year.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 31, 2025
Lower House speaker wants early conclusion on imperial family talks
Despite the speaker's hopes, it is unclear whether an agreement can be reached among the parties because there remain gaps between their views.
Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama speaks to reporters after meeting with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jan 19, 2025
LDP heavyweight Moriyama boosting profile within party
Moriyama's increased presence within the Ishiba administration has failed to shore up low levels of public support.
A man casts his ballot during the general election at a polling station in Tokyo on Oct. 27.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 13, 2025
Ishiba keeping eye on Lower House multiseat constituency talks
The prime minister is believed to be eyeing cooperation with opposition parties by using electoral system reform as an opportunity.
"This is a year of elections," Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (center) told peer LDP executives at a party meeting held Tuesday to mark party members' start of work for this year, at LDP headquarters in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 10, 2025
Talk of summer double election persists in Japan
The Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito have agreed to begin preparations for the next Lower House election.
A voter casts a ballot at a polling station in Tokyo on Oct. 27. Last year, incumbents in every major country that held a national election lost that vote, the first time that has happened in almost 120 years.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2024
The world is ever more angry. That is not good.
Hostility toward existing leadership stems from the belief that lives aren't improving and future generations will have fewer opportunities than previous ones.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a meeting in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 28, 2024
Ishiba hints at possibility of double election next summer
An Upper House poll is scheduled for next July, and Ishiba hinted at the possibility that a Lower House election might coincide with that poll.
A Lower House committee on political reform deliberates on a revision of the political funds law on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 17, 2024
Bill to abolish funds for political activities clears Lower House
The bill will put a stop to the disbursement of such funds, criticized for their lack of transparency, by parties to their lawmakers.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba addresses a Liberal Democratic Party meeting of regional chapter secretaries-generals in Tokyo on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 8, 2024
Ishiba vows to show resolve in run-up to Upper House poll
Ishiba vowed to strengthen the party ahead of next summer's House of Councilors election.
A Lower House plenary session in Tokyo on Monday. The Liberal Democratic Party will hold a meeting on Dec. 20 to discuss the use of social media in election campaigns.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 6, 2024
LDP to hold meeting on social media use in election campaigns
The meeting on Dec. 20 comes ahead of major polls next year in which the party aims to win new supporters online and take measures to counter disinformation.
Masafumi Tabuchi leaves Tokyo police headquarters on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 30, 2024
Defeated Japan election candidate held over promising to pay campaign staff
Paying or promising to pay campaign staff is a violation of the election law.

Longform

The sun shines from behind a waving Philippine flag at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.
Eighty years after the Battle of Manila, old foes forge new ties