As negotiations over the budget for fiscal 2025 reach a climax, the government has signaled its readiness to make political concessions, though Nippon Ishin no Kai is exercising caution on whether the ruling coalition will hold up their end of the bargain.

Responding to questions in the Lower House budget committee Monday, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba reiterated that the ruling bloc will seek a formal agreement with Nippon Ishin on free high school tuition, free day care for children 2 years old and under, and free school meals — causes that the second-largest opposition party in parliament has long fought for.

“I would like to express my sincere respect for the ongoing deliberations between our parties,” Ishiba said, adding the government might explicitly mention new measures on education in this June’s honebuto no hōshin, its economic and fiscal policy guidelines for the upcoming fiscal year.

The government is considering abolishing the ¥9.1 million ($60,000) yearly income cap for receiving government aid for public education starting from April, Ishiba said Monday, uncharacteristically reading from a prepared script. Households with annual income that exceeds that threshold are not entitled to government aid for public education, which currently amounts to ¥118,800.

As for private high school education, Ishiba has suggested hiking financial aid for eligible households from the current ¥396,000 to approximately ¥457,000 — the national average of tuition fees for private high schools — from April 2026, while abolishing the program's ¥5.9 million income cap.

On the other hand, Nippon Ishin insists on having the rest of the country adopt the system of its home base of Osaka, which rolls out subsidies of up to ¥630,000, all while showing some leeway for concessions in the interim.

The party has opened a door for negotiations with the LDP, while keeping one foot out the door out of fear that the government might walk back on its promises.

Nippon Ishin co-leader Seiji Maehara repeatedly commended Ishiba’s concessions as he posed questions to the prime minister on Monday, stressing how it is a responsibility for his party to make sure the budget is approved on time.

"When the ruling parties don’t have a majority in the chamber, opposition parties also have a great responsibility,” Maehara said. “If the opposition doesn’t collaborate with the government, the budget isn't approved, and people’s lives will be severely disrupted.”

Maehara demanded legal guarantees to ensure the government does not walk back on its agreement with his party, including legislation that spells out each step toward complete implementation of agreed policies.

Nippon Ishin seems to have learned from its past mistakes. Last June, after signing a written agreement with the LDP on a revision of the political funds control law and voting in favor of the ruling coalition’s plan in the Lower House, Nippon Ishin was forced to change its position in the Upper House when the government failed to deliver on its promises to the opposition party.

The LDP has insisted no additional guarantee is necessary this time around. In a meeting between the parties' policy chiefs, the ruling pact went as far as showing a draft of a potential agreement.

On a separate front, Tuesday saw the resumption of negotiations between the tax policy chairpersons of the LDP-Komeito coalition and the Democratic Party for the People (DPP) after talks stalled for almost two months.

At a party convention last week on the heels of a spate of victories in local elections, the DPP reaffirmed its commitment to its pet policy — raising the income tax exemption cap from ¥1.03 million to ¥1.78 million.

Last week, the government submitted a bill to raise the cap to ¥1.23 million, but this is still too low for the DPP.

The parties will meet again Wednesday when they are expected to discuss the LDP's latest proposal of raising the cap to ¥1.6 million.

"I can't help but say that it is not a plan that takes into consideration people's livelihoods," DPP acting leader Motohisa Furukawa declared after the meeting on Tuesday, referring to the LDP's latest proposal.

On the same day, the ruling coalition also met with representatives of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan to discuss the party’s blueprint for a revision of the draft budget. The talks are expected to continue over the next few weeks.