The Diet session closed Wednesday afternoon, with attention now turning to political parties revving up preparations for the July 4 Tokyo metropolitan assembly election and a lower house election expected to take place after the Tokyo Games.
The government in concert with the ruling coalition are making efforts on the COVID-19 vaccination program, hoping it will lead to holding a successful Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics and bring a boost to the administration.
"We'd like to speed up the vaccination program for as many people as possible," Hakubun Shimomura, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's policy research council, said Wednesday. "We will also consider additional economic measures."
The Diet was convened on Jan. 18 for its regular 150-day session.
As one of the Diet session's final acts, the House of Councillors stayed up through the predawn hours Wednesday to enact a bill to tighten oversight of the use of land deemed important from a security viewpoint. It passed the upper house with the support of the ruling coalition of the LDP and Komeito, while also gaining votes from lawmakers in parties such as Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party).
The law will designate land within 1 kilometer of such sites as Self-Defense Forces facilities, U.S. military bases and nuclear power plants, as well as remote border islands as "watch zones." It will allow the government to investigate the use of land and buildings in these watch zones as well as look into the names and nationalities of their owners.
The aim of the law is to end opaque foreign capital acquisitions of land.
Other legislation enacted during the session included one related to the establishment of a digital agency that will serve as a command post to promote digitization in the public and private sectors, and another to revise the law on securing medical care for the elderly to raise the medical expense burden from 10% to 20% for people ages 75 and older with incomes above a certain level.
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