Japan's Diet Convenes, Will Address Inflation And Ex - Unification Church Issue
Japan's Diet convened an extraordinary session on Monday, presenting the first opportunity for full-fledged parliamentary debate after July's Upper House election.
Key points of contention will likely include economic measures against soaring prices and the relationship between politics and the former Unification Church.
Prime Minister Kishida Fumio will deliver a policy speech to each chamber on Monday afternoon. He will propose a new package of measures to tackle surging prices and other economic issues.
It is expected to include a plan to spend 1 trillion yen, or about 6.9 billion dollars, over five years on human resource development projects, such as reskilling programs to help people find work in growing sectors. This is part of efforts to help increase wages.
Kishida will also likely express his intention to ease financial burden being felt by households and businesses due to rising electricity bills.
Representatives of political parties will pose questions about his speech for three days from Wednesday.
The government and the ruling coalition will likely work to have the Diet quickly pass a supplementary budget to bankroll the new economic package, which they want compiled this month.
They are apparently hoping that the move will help reverse the sagging approval ratings for the Kishida Cabinet shown in recent opinion surveys by various media organizations.
Opposition parties will likely scrutinize the effectiveness of the economic proposals and shed light on ties between the former Unification Church and lawmakers of Kishida's main ruling Liberal Democratic Party, including Cabinet members.
The religious organization, now known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, has allegedly been involved in dubious marketing and donation schemes.
Opposition forces are also expected to press the government and the ruling parties on issues related to the state funeral of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo last Tuesday.
An NHK opinion poll held more than two weeks before the funeral found that over half of the respondents did not approve of the ceremony.
The Diet session will last for 69 days through December 10. Governing and opposition parties will likely engage in heated debate as they face off in unified local elections next spring.