Hung parliament keeps Lower House Legislative Bureau busy
The Legislative Bureau of the Lower House has been working in overdrive in recent months, with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba leading a minority government, which results in more work needed to arrange for the debate and amendment of bills submitted by his administration.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, Komeito, lost their combined majority in last year's general election, resulting in an increase in negotiations with opposition parties on legislation, with the bureau playing a behind-the-scenes role.
With an Upper House election set for this summer, political parties are actively pushing their respective policies, stretching the resources of the bureau, which also advises lawmakers on legal issues.
Unlike the Cabinet Legislation Bureau, which examines government-sponsored bills and interprets laws and regulations on behalf of the government, the Lower House's Legislative Bureau is placed under the speaker of the chamber and is mainly tasked with assisting Lower House lawmakers in drafting bills and supporting deliberations on them.
About 70 of the 88 members of the bureau are involved in such tasks.
Another key role that the bureau plays is attending discussions between the ruling and opposition parties, and assist in the revision of bills.
In the first half of the current ordinary session of the Diet, Japan's parliament, the ruling and opposition parties engaged in a big battle over the government's budget for fiscal 2025.
Aiming to get the budget passed before the start of the fiscal year on April 1, the LDP and Komeito entered into difficult talks with the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP), Nippon Ishin no Kai and the Democratic Party for the People (DPP).
During these negotiations, the bureau played its role of offering advice from a fair and neutral standpoint.
In March, the Lower House passed the budget after revisions were made incorporating Nippon Ishin's calls for making high school tuition free and the DPP's request for a reconsideration of the current income tax threshold from ¥1.03 million ($7,068) per year.
These were the first parliamentary revisions made to an initial government budget in 29 years.
Even with that debate over, the bureau still has little breathing room.
The LDP's loss of of its dominance in parliament has led to an increase in the number of lawmaker-initiated bills, which involve the bureau from the planning stage.
As the LDP started drafting a bill to revise the system of political donations by corporations and organizations, a major focus of the current session of parliament, the CDP and Nippon Ishin also began working on a similar bill of their own while Komeito and the DPP kick-started their own proposal on the matter.
Adjustments were also made during deliberations on an active cyberdefense bill and another bill on amending the criminal procedure law to allow for the digitalization of criminal investigation procedures.
While one opposition party member has described the bureau as "indispensable," a member of the bureau has come out to highlight the difficulties it is facing, saying "overtime hours are increasing" and "we also have to work at weekends to get our jobs done."
Recognizing the bureau's overwhelming workload, the ruling and opposition parties agreed in late April to give it sufficient time to respond to requests for assistance.
Among measures being considered to alleviate the bureau's workload are the use of artificial intelligence and an increase in the number of employees.
Still, the bureau is expected to continue facing the consequences of a fractured Diet for the foreseeable future.
With only about a month until the current session of parliament ends on June 22, the bureau may be inundated with requests for assistance from both ruling and opposition parties on the issue of whether Japan should allow married couples to retain their respective surnames, another contentious point that has come up for debate in recent months.
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