National
Ida Torres on May 22 2013
The Lower House passed a bill that would give adults who are under the guardianship of another adult the right to
vote. The bill, which was unanimously approved, will now be sent to the Upper House for final passing,which is expected to happen this Friday. The upcoming Upper House election in July will be the first one where adult wards will have the right to cast their own ballot.
Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe still has apprehensions about the proposal to create a new state-managed war memorial in place of the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which honors all of the nation's war-dead including convicted war criminals. He wants to take into consideration how the bereaved families would feel about a new shrine.
It took more than 30 years, but the end is finally in sight for Japan joining the 1980
Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The Lower House unanimously approved the signing of the international treaty and will receive Diet approval within 30 days if the Upper House will not vote on it.
On Thursday the Lower House of Japan's parliament approved nominee
Haruhiko Kuroda to be the next governor of the
Bank of Japan. In addition to Kuroda, who was picked by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Lower House also approved Kikuo Iwata and Hiroshi Nakaso to serve as BOJ deputy governors.
As Japan's general election wound down on Sunday, it was more than obvious the
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) would win control of the Lower House by a large margin. The LDP, along with its coalition partner, New Komeito, won over two-thirds of the 480 seats, regaining power for the first time since 2009, in what most have dubbed a
landslide victory. Now party leader, Shinzo Abe, will be named prime minister once more, after holding the position for one year in 2006, becoming Japan's seventh premier in as little as six years.
Japan's leading opposition Liberal Democratic Party (
LDP) and its coalition partner, the New Komeito, are now expected to win as many as two-thirds of the number of seats in Parliament's Lower House come the
December 16th election. This comes from the most recent survey conducted by the Kyodo news agency, which polled over 60,000 voters, and indicates a possible end to Japan's enduring policy deadlock.
Japanese Prime Minister
Yoshihiko Noda will dissolve the country's parliament on Friday in preparation for general elections to be held on December 16th. This is expected to be the end of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)'s three years in power, and a return of control to the opposing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which ruled for nearly 50 consecutive years in the post-World War II era.
Japanese Prime Minister
Yoshihiko Noda stated today that if opposing parties agree to pass reforms on the electoral system, he would dissolve parliament on November 16th, this Friday, and call for Lower House elections to be held on December 16th. This comes the after Noda's ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and leading opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
reached an agreement on a bill to cover the government's budget for the year, one of the final requirements the prime minister said needed to be met before committing to an election.
Japan's ruling and opposition parties have finally come to an agreement on their budged standoff, it was announced on Tuesday. Akira Amari, the policy chief for the opposing Liberal Democratic Party (
LDP), said a deal was reached the night before with the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (
DPJ) to see a deficit-covering bond bill approved by the Upper House. The Nikkei business daily has reported that
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda made a decision to call for general elections in either December or January.
According to aides, Japanese Prime Minister
Yoshihiko Noda is considering December as the time to dissolve the Lower House and hold a general election in order to fulfill commitments to the opposing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The plan seems to be that Noda first wants to formally start talks on Japan's participation in the U.S.-led
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, hoping commitment would secure more votes for the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).
