Opposition parties on Tuesday submitted a no-confidence motion against the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, as the ruling coalition has rejected their calls for extending the current regular parliamentary session.
The Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition ally Komeito, currently holding about two-thirds of the seats in the House of Representatives, are certain to vote down the motion in the Lower House plenary session later in the day.
The plan to submit the motion was announced by Yukio Edano, leader of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, after meeting with his counterparts from smaller opposition parties on Monday.
“Prime Minister Suga’s Cabinet has no sense of responsibility or crisis in protecting the lives and livelihoods of people from coronavirus infections, deemed the greatest crisis of the postwar era,” Edano told a news conference after the meeting.
The CDP and the smaller parties have called for extending the Diet session for three months beyond its last day on Wednesday to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, but the LDP and Komeito have deemed it unnecessary.
The last time the Cabinet faced a no-confidence motion was in June 2019. The motion then was voted down in the Lower House.
Hiroshi Moriyama, the LDP’s Diet affairs chief, said that Suga has received support from the leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized countries for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics starting next month, and that the prime minister has been putting the utmost effort into containing the pandemic.
“It does not warrant a no-confidence motion,” Moriyama told reporters.
At a news conference on Sunday in Britain after attending a three-day G7 summit, Suga did not rule out dissolving the Lower House while stressing his priority remains bringing COVID-19 under control.
“(The election) could happen any time. But my top priority is dealing with the coronavirus,” Suga said. “I want to bring back safety and security to the Japanese people as soon as possible.”
The general election must be held before the current four-year term of Lower House members ends on Oct. 21.
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