Japan’s lower house rejects no-confidence motion in gov’t

Tokyo, June 16 (Agency) The lower house of the Japanese parliament, the House of Representatives, did not pass a no-confidence motion against the government proposed by opposition parties. A total of 449 lawmakers participated in the vote, with 107 of them being in favor and 342 against. On Thursday, the leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party, Kenta Izumi, said he would submit a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government on June 16.

The opposition party reportedly opposes the creation of a special fund to secure financial resources for defense needs and criticizes the prime minister for abusing his powers over the right to dissolve the parliament. Until recently, Japanese media had been speculating about whether Kishida would dissolve the parliament. On Thursday, Kishida said that he would not dissolve it. The latest opinion polls conducted by Japanese media show that support for the incumbent cabinet is once again on the decline. According to NHK, it has dropped three percentage points in the past month to 43%.