The current Diet session has less than two weeks to go before wrapping up on Dec. 5. The final stage of the session will focus on the intensive deliberations by the budget committees of both houses that will start on Nov. 25 with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in attendance.
The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) and other opposition parties are poised to strongly target the government's continuance of the "Go To Travel" tourism promotion campaign, which they see as problematic.
On Friday, Jun Azumi, chairman of the CDPJ's Diet Affairs Committee, was critical of the government's response to the recent surge of record-high number of coronavirus infections throughout the nation, saying, "It's a contradiction to speak of preventing the spread of infection while conducting the Go To campaign. The government is doing nothing."
In the intensive deliberations ahead, the opposition plans to set its sights on the government's handling of the surge. In the House of Representatives Budget Committee, CDPJ leader Yukio Edano will take the floor to grill the prime minister about the impact of the campaign on the spread of infections and the testing system.
"The last stage of the parliamentary session will be 'Go To Politics,'" Azumi said. "I want to press for a decision to halt the campaign."
Also to be brought up in the deliberations will be Suga's refusal to appoint six candidates for membership of the Science Council of Japan, against the recommendation of the council itself.
Meanwhile, deliberations on bills that the government has submitted to the current Diet are progressing smoothly. Of eight newly submitted bills and treaties, seven have passed the House of Representatives, including one related to a coronavirus vaccine. The Upper House will begin deliberations on the bills this week.
The draft of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between Japan and Britain will be approved by the House of Representatives on Tuesday, and is expected to be sent to the Upper House.
Among pending agenda items, a bill to amend the Plant Variety Protection and Seed Law, aimed at preventing the flow of seeds and seedlings of agricultural crops developed in Japan to other countries, passed the House of Representatives with a majority of ruling and opposition support, except for the CDPJ and the Japanese Communist Party.
The House of Representatives also passed a special amendment that allows for holidays to be shifted to coincide with the opening and closing ceremonies of next year's Tokyo Olympics. The government is aiming for passage and enactment in the Upper House.
To ensure it does not interfere with the compiling of the fiscal 2021 budget bill by the end of this year, the government is set on not extending the session. At a press conference on Friday, Hiroshige Seko, secretary general for the Liberal Democratic Party in the House of Councillors, said, "Our schedule allows us to just be able to pass the cabinet bill during the session. We will approach it with a sense of urgency."
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