Japan's Constitutional Democratic Party leader Noda: Strive to ensure that the ruling party does not hold more than half of the seats in the House of Councillors election

Gate.io January 4th news, according to Kyodo News, Yukio Edano, leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, held a New Year press conference in Ise City, Mie Prefecture. Regarding the target for the summer Upper House elections, he stated, ‘At least we should achieve the ruling party having less than half of the seats in the re-election, and we will strive to make the ruling party have less than half of the seats including non-re-election seats.’ Edano criticized the budget for the fiscal year 2025, which exceeds 115 trillion yen (about RMB 5.4 trillion), and will strive for modifications. He said, ‘We will rigorously examine it from the perspective of taxpayers and engage in serious discussions with other opposition parties to determine what we can achieve.’ The government and the ruling party plan to convene a regular session of the Diet on January 24th, and therefore envision holding the Upper House elections on July 20th for vote counting. Regarding this schedule, Edano expressed opposition, stating, ‘(The 20th) is in the middle of a three-day weekend, so the voter turnout may decrease.’