Average value of assets declared by members of Japan's Upper House hits record low
The average value of assets held by 124 Upper House members elected or re-elected last July was reported to be at a record-low of ¥18.35 million ($170,000), a Kyodo News tally showed Monday. The value of financial assets, land and property held by House of ...
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is considering establishing a new project team soon to discuss the strengthening of missile defense measures amid rapid progress made by North Korea in its nuclear and missile development programs, LDP lawmakers said Saturday. The project team is expected to ...
77% of Japanese town and village assembly members are elderly, and only 10% are female
Of the 10,956 town and village assembly members in Japan, 8,442, or 77.1 percent, were aged 60 or over as of July 1 last year, a survey showed Thursday. The survey by the national association of town and village assembly chairs covered 927 such assemblies ...
LDP to propose allowing lawmakers to vote online during maternity-related absences
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party plans to propose allowing House of Representatives members to vote online if they are absent due to pregnancy or childbirth, LDP officials said Thursday. An LDP project team discussing Lower House reforms Thursday approved a plan to introduce online voting ...
Around 70 Japanese lawmakers visit war-linked Yasukuni Shrine for autumn festival
Around 70 Japanese lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties visited the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo during its annual autumn festival Thursday, a day after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to the shrine. Yasukuni Shrine, viewed by many as a symbol ...
LGBT people seek apology from Sugita after LDP lawmaker called them 'unproductive'
Members of sexual minority groups on Friday demanded an apology from a ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker who claimed in a magazine article that the government should not support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people because they cannot bear offspring and thus are "unproductive." LGBT ...
Japan's lawmakers' average income unchanged in 2017 at ¥24 million
Lawmakers' income averaged ¥24.12 million in 2017, unchanged from a year earlier, with the top three earning over ¥200 million each through stock sales, parliamentary data showed Monday. While Lower House members did not receive salaries during the dissolution of the Diet and general election ...
Aso's office admits deputy prime minister broke guidelines on golf club memberships
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso violated the ministers' guidelines recommending against the purchase or sale of golf club memberships while in office, a parliamentary report showed Monday. An official at Aso's office said the deputy prime minister "should have refrained from" buying ...
LDP lawmaker faces off against his party's old guard over child care leave plan
Liberal Democratic Party Lower House lawmaker Kensuke Miyazaki wanted to do something to change the nation's declining birthrate, so he announced last month he planned to take child care leave after his wife gives birth. The representative from Kyoto's No. 3 district now has another ...
Lawmakers set up group to end killing of stray cats and dogs
A total of 53 lawmakers set up a nonpartisan animal protection group Thursday, with the aim of abolishing the killing of stray cats and dogs by local governments. Mizuho Fukushima of the Social Democratic Party, who was named secretary general of the parliamentarians' group, told ...
54% of assemblywomen uncomfortable with counterparts' sexist acts
A nationwide survey of assemblywomen said Friday that just over 54 percent of female lawmakers feel uncomfortable when exposed to sexist acts, remarks or verbal abuse from assemblymen. "Such sex discrimination has been a major obstacle for women seeking assembly membership as well as for ...
