Tag - upper-house

 
Menu
Search
 
August 31, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

UPPER HOUSE

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has most support from eligible voters ahead of this summer's election for the House of Councilors, a Jiji Press poll showed Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 17, 2025
LDP has most support ahead of Upper House election, poll shows
Respondents who said they will vote for the LDP in the Upper House's proportional representation bloc accounted for 20.6%.
Japan needs a strong leader as it faces huge challenges. With Upper House and Tokyo gubernatorial elections coming up, the LDP needs to lay the groundwork for replacing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, whose polls have entered the danger zone.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 9, 2025
The window to replace Japan's accidental prime minister is nigh
Shigeru Ishiba isn't the right leader to weather Japan through the incoming storm. With Upper House elections this summer, it's time the LDP starts fielding his replacement.
The Upper House passes a revised budget bill for fiscal 2025 on Monday, before sending it back to the Lower House for approval.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 31, 2025
Japan's fiscal 2025 budget enacted just in time
The budget bill, which calls for general account spending of ¥115 trillion, was enacted in time for the start of the next fiscal year on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the Upper House of the Diet on Friday. The clock is ticking for Ishiba's administration to get the budget for fiscal 2025 passed in parliament.
JAPAN / Politics / EXPLAINER
Mar 28, 2025
Is it a big problem if the budget fails to clear parliament by the end of March?
Government functions won't be significantly hindered, but the Ishiba administration's reputation will take another beating.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends an Upper House Budget Committee session in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Mar 13, 2025
How Upper House pressure led to Ishiba's stunning reversal on medical cost caps
An unprecedented second amendment to Japan's budget shows opposition in the Lower House is not the only external pressure to which the government is exposed.
Natsumi Sakai, a Lower House member of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, during an interview in parliament last month
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 4, 2025
Gender equality in politics remains elusive in Japan
Japan has a long way to go before fully achieving gender equality in politics.
Ichiro Aisawa (second from left), head of the Liberal Democratic Party's Research Commission on the Election System, addresses a meeting of major political parties on election-related issues held at the parliament building on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 16, 2025
Japan parties to tackle issue of collaborating candidates
A provision to unify the size and other aspects of posters, which currently vary by election type, was also included in the bill.
Dewi Sukarno (center) at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 14, 2025
Celebrity Dewi Sukarno launches political group for animal rights
The 12 Heiwa To party, whose name is a play on "wan-nyan" (bow-meow), will focus on animal protection as its main policy.
Only couples experiencing infertility would be eligible to access assisted reproductive technology, while those in de facto marriages and same-sex couples will be excluded.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 6, 2025
Assisted reproductive tech bill submitted to Upper House
The proposed legislation is aimed at guaranteeing the right of people born through the use of such technology to know their origins.
Ryohei Iwatani, secretary-general of Nippon Ishin no Kai, holds a news conference on Wednesday in the National Diet Building.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 23, 2025
Nippon Ishin proposes primaries to unify opposition candidates
The proposal calls for conducting online public opinion polls in constituencies where multiple opposition parties plan to field candidates.
Former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, speaks during a news conference in Ise, Mie Prefecture, on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 4, 2025
CDP chief Noda rejects grand coalition with LDP
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who serves concurrently as LDP president, said Wednesday that there "should be an option to form" such a tie-up.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a meeting in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 28, 2024
Ishiba hints at possibility of double election next summer
An Upper House poll is scheduled for next July, and Ishiba hinted at the possibility that a Lower House election might coincide with that poll.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during an Upper House Budget Committee meeting on Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2024
Opening ethics panel hearings to media could allay public suspicions, Ishiba says
Of the 27 scandal-hit Upper House lawmakers willing to face ethics panel hearings, 23 have sought for the sessions to be held behind closed doors.
In last month’s Lower House election, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who also serves as president of the Liberal Democratic Party, excluded members implicated in a slush funds scandal who refused to attend a Lower House ethics hearing earlier this year from the party’s proportional representation candidates list.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 28, 2024
More scandal-hit LDP lawmakers to attend Upper House ethics hearing
The lawmakers could be at a disadvantage in next summer's Upper House election if they do not attend the hearing.
Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito (left) urged Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to resolve the slush funds scandal during their meeting on Saturday at the Prime Minister's Office.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 14, 2024
Upper House LDP members hope to face ethics panel over scandal
LDP lawmakers in the Lower House are generally opposed to such moves.
Eiji Kidoguchi, fielded by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, won a by-election for the House of Councilors on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 28, 2024
CDP candidate wins Upper House by-election
Eiji Kidoguchi, elected to the chamber for the second time, focused his campaign on political reform.
Megumi Hirose, former Upper House member
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 10, 2024
Campaigning begins for Upper House by-election in Iwate
The by-election follows the resignation of Megumi Hirose over allegations public funds were misused.
Former Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Megumi Hirose in the Upper House in April. She stepped down as lawmaker on Aug. 15.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 30, 2024
Ex-LDP lawmaker Hirose indicted over alleged pay fraud
She allegedly reported the wife of her public secretary as her second secretary although the wife did not perform any work in that capacity.
Lawmakers leave a Lower House plenary session after the chamber was dissolved in October 2021.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 21, 2024
Signs point toward November general election following LDP race
The advantage gained from the change in LDP leadership may diminish if the snap poll is not called soon after the party's presidential race.
A by-election to fill the vacancy left by Megumi Hirose's resignation is expected to take place on Oct. 27.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 15, 2024
Former LDP member Megumi Hirose resigns as Upper House lawmaker
Her resignation comes amid allegations that one of her secretaries had fraudulently received a salary using state funds.
Philippine bid to acquire used Japanese warships gains steam
Tokyo is looking to transfer Abukuma-class vessels to the Philippines as part of broader efforts to boost the defense capabilities of like-minded neighbors amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the region.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
Top Japan trade negotiator canceled U.S. trip over rice, report says
Ryosei Akazawa
Most Japanese teens struggling with school find end of summer ‘painful’
Some 93.1% of Japanese teenagers who struggle with school life said they felt like they “wanted to disappear from the world" at the end of summer vacation ahead of the start of a new term, according to a recent survey released by Yokohama-based nonprofit Daisan Kazoku.
Most Trump tariffs are not legal, U.S. appeals court rules
Workers hang a large poster of U.S. President Donald Trump on the facade of the Department of Labor headquarters building in Washington on Wednesday.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
Japan is warming up to tattoos — just not permanent ones
Tattoos have a complex history in Japan, but new types of temporary ink are letting locals curious about body art experiment without the commitment.
YouTube Music Weekend is where Japan’s internet-born performers go global
Headlining the second day of YouTube Music Weekend is Vocaloid artist Kikuo, who, with 1.46 million YouTube subscribers, is one of the most popular artists in the genre.
Japan looks to build drone ‘shield’ in record defense budget request
A group of Ground Self-Defense Force service members discuss drone operations and capabilities at a joint static display during the Orient Shield 24 opening ceremony at the Yausubetsu Training Area in Hokkaido in July last year.
Can anime carry the memories of World War II?
Many schools in Japan show "Grave of the Fireflies" as educational material to tell the emotionally grueling story of a boy who has no means to prevent his sister from starving to death.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tokyo Gas lights the way to carbon neutrality
Tokyo Gas lights the way to carbon neutrality

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER