Prime Minister Fumio Kishida kicked off a fresh parliamentary session on Monday with a policy speech, in which he vowed to come up with a road map in the spring for his long-term goal of shifting the nation toward a new form of capitalism that features a fairer distribution of wealth.
A large portion of the policy speech — Kishida’s third in the almost four months since he became prime minister — was devoted to Japan’s COVID-19 response, but overall it lacked new policies. That is partly because Kishida has been unveiling new ones as he goes, and it instead served more as a comprehensive wrap-up of what he has already announced.
The 150-day session will run until June 15, just before an Upper House election is likely to be held. Opposition parties have been preparing to pressure Kishida on virus measures, including pushing the government to be tougher on the U.S. military in Japan over its own COVID-19 measures.