Japan ruling bloc led by Takaichi rams FY 2026 budget through lower house

TOKYO - Japan's ruling coalition, led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, on Friday pushed a record initial state budget through the House of Representatives by leveraging its supermajority, brushing aside opposition outcry to ensure the Diet enacts it before the April start of the next fiscal year.

The unusually short 59 hours of deliberations over the draft budget worth 122.31 trillion yen ($769 billion) drew criticism from opposition forces, which lambasted the ruling parties for trying to "bulldoze" it through and made a last-ditch, unsuccessful attempt to oust the head of the powerful Budget Committee.