Photo/Illutration Lower House representatives from the ruling coalition and opposition parties meet in the Diet on Nov. 6. (Takeshi Iwashita)

For a change, the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan is more or less in a position to do what it wants. 

And that means pushing its policy priorities in the Lower House committees to be chaired by its lawmakers.

The ruling coalition and opposition parties on Nov. 8 agreed to the distribution of chairs of Lower House standing, special and other committees.

As it is in the minority in the Lower House, the ruling coalition will only chair 15 of the 27 committees, with the opposition parties taking over in the other 12.

Included in that list is the powerful Budget Committee, which will be chaired by Jun Azumi, the veteran CDP Diet Affairs Committee chairman.

The CDP had also insisted that is lawmakers chair the special committee on political reform and the Judicial Affairs Committee.

During the last Diet session, the political reform special committee deliberated the revision of the Political Fund Control Law following a public uproar over large amounts of unreported money distributed to LDP factions from fund-raising parties.

The CDP, as well as the opposition Democratic Party for the People, have called for tightening the Political Fund Control Law. With a CDP lawmaker, Shu Watanabe, as chair of the special committee, there is a good chance greater attention will be placed on such a revision.

Chinami Nishimura, a former CDP secretary-general, is expected to chair the Judicial Affairs Committee. In 2022, the CDP and other opposition parties submitted legislation to the committee to allow married couples to choose the surname they wanted. But deliberations never got off the ground.

That is expected to change with Nishimura in charge of the committee. With even junior coalition partner Komeito favoring giving couples the choice of surname, a bill submitted by a lawmaker, rather than the Cabinet, could be taken up in the committee.

“We should be able to resolve the issue within a year,” a high-ranking CDP executive said. 

At his Nov. 8 news conference, CDP head Yoshihiko Noda said his party would push through change in the Lower House so genuine and open deliberations can be held on bills.

Yukio Edano, a former CDP head, is expected to chair the Commission on the Constitution. Although Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has said he wanted to revise the Constitution during his term as LDP president, an LDP Upper House caucus executive said giving the CDP the chair was a sign “the administration has no intention of changing the Constitution.”

The ruling coalition has managed to maintain the chairs of the Rules and Administration Committee, which sets the Diet calendar, and the Deliberative Council on Political Ethics, which would normally be expected to look into scandal in the political world.

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