Japan Press Weekly

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2026 July 15 - 21 TOP3 [POLITICS]

A spate of bad laws enacted while neglecting to alleviate people’s hardships

The House of Councillors at its plenary session on July 17 enacted a series of harmful bills by a majority vote of the ruling and some opposition parties. In doing so, they ignored addressing the need for measures to alleviate the hardships of the general public.

The Japanese Communist Party opposed two proposed law amendments and one bill.

The revised Imperial House Law, which insists on male-line succession to the throne and excludes the possibility of a female emperor, was enacted after only about three hours of discussion in each chamber.

Also, contrary to the wishes of victims of wrongful convictions, the amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure, which revises the retrial system in a manner that runs counter to its original purpose of “emergency relief”, was also rammed through.

A bill to create a crime for desecrating Japan’s national flag, which punishes the damaging of the “Hinomaru” flag, also became law. This new legislation infringes upon the freedom of thought and expression guaranteed under the Japanese Constitution and violates the principle of legality in criminal law.

In the first place, on January 23, the scheduled start date of the ordinary session of the Diet, Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae abruptly dissolved the House of Representatives. She did so in order to ensure the government’s survival through a snap general election on extremely short notice while her approval ratings were still high.

Consequently, the start of deliberations on the fiscal 2026 budget draft was delayed. Although passing the budget by the end of fiscal 2025 in March would have been impossible under normal circumstances, PM Takaichi insisted on doing so. She cut the budget deliberations in the Lower House, which typically take a month, to just two weeks by using the overwhelming majority of seats the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner “Nippon Ishin no Kai” party hold in the House.

During the general election campaign, Takaichi pledged to reduce the consumption tax rate to 0% for food items. However, she avoided debating the tax cut in the Diet and instead handed the discussion entirely over to the “National Council on Social Security” which excludes political parties advocating for the abolition of the consumption tax. To this day, her pledge of “no tax on food” remains on hold.

The ruling coalition used its majority to force through the aforementioned bills, despite the lack of urgency, as agreed on by the LDP and the “Ishin” when forming the coalition government. Meanwhile, they are neglecting to address the pressing issue of inflation and rising prices, which should be an urgent priority.