Japan's Diet To Open Session; Surging Prices, Ex - Unification Church In Focus
Japan's Diet is set to convene an extraordinary session on Monday, providing the first opportunity for full-fledged parliamentary debate after July's Upper House election.
Key points of contention will likely include economic measures to deal with 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 the first day of the session. He will likely propose a new package of measures to tackle surging prices and other economic issues.
It is expected to contain 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 work in growing sectors. This is part of efforts to help increase wages.
Kishida will also likely express his intention to ease the financial burden being felt by households and companies 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 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 practices and questionable donation-collecting 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 holding 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.