Takaichi's Special Diet Session

Special Diet Session Started

By Takuya Nishimura, Senior Fellow,  Asia Policy Point
Former editorial writer for the Hokkaido Shimbun
You can find his blog, J Update here.
February 23, 2026

The 221^st session of the Japanese Diet was convoked on February 18. This is a 150-day special session after the February 8 general election of the Lower House. After the success of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in that election, both chambers reelected Sanae Takaichi as Prime Minister – although her reelection in the Upper House required two rounds of voting. She then reappointed all her ministers and gave a policy speech.  This speech made almost no policy changes from her speech last October after her first election in the Diet. But one thing has changed: the party structure in the Lower House.
 
Takaichi dissolved the Lower House on January 23, the first day of the 220^th session, and the session was closed on that day. Article 54 of the Constitution of Japan requires a general election within 40 days after dissolution. Takaichi accelerated the process, holding an election just 16 days later on February 8. Article 54 also requires the Diet to hold a special session within 30 days after a general election. For Takaichi, only ten days passed between the election and the convocation.
 
A special session after a general election usually closes in a few days after the Diet elects the prime minister. This time, however, Takaichi called for 150 days to discuss the FY2026 budget bill and other items on her political agenda. Both the LDP and the opposition parties agreed. Takaichi hopes to pass the budget bill before the end of March.
 
The first Takaichi Cabinet resigned on February 18, and she formed her second cabinet on the same day she was reelected as prime minister. She reappointed all her ministers. Takaichi also confirmed that she will maintain the LDP’s leading coalition with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP). JIP is expected to join the Takaichi Cabinet in the coming fall at Takaichi’s request.
 
On February 20, a few days after convoking the new Diet session, Takaichi delivered her policy speech to the Diet. She would have given the speech in January had she not dissolved the Lower House. The speech fleshed out her campaign slogan, “responsible and proactive public finances” – but it contained no new policy. She had already discussed the slogan in another policy speech to an extraordinary session of the Diet in October 2025.
 
In the February 18 speech, Takaichi promised to promote domestic investment, which has fallen short of the government’s expectations. She also will work for “strategic investment,” including economic security, food security, energy security, health-medical security, and cyber security. Takaichi said that these policies represent her reformist agenda, but it is unclear what kind of reforms the policies will bring.
 
In her speech, Takaichi also declared that she would not deliver a supplemental budget in the coming fall, a standard practice of other prime ministers. She is forgoing a supplemental budget to enhance the predictability of the national budget for the private sector and local governments, but she did not explain how this reform would contribute to Japan’s economy. It is curious why she is so persistent in changing the budgetary process.
 
On diplomacy, Takaichi abandoned the phrase “diplomacy that flourishes on the world’s center stage” that she had used in her policy speech last fall. Instead, she has begun to refer to “responsible Japanese diplomacy,” a strategy to create peace and prosperity. She seems to have realized that Japan would not be able to “flourish” in a world where a major power can go into and disregard the sovereignty of another country. [Ed. See: The Disintegration of the World Order and Its Reconstruction as Japan’s Mission by Prof. Akio Takahara, Nippon.com., Feb 19, 2026]
 
It is doubtful that Takaichi properly recognizes the consequence of her careless comment on the Taiwan contingency last November. She has so far offered no realistic measures to improve bilateral relations with China, which has continued to pressure Japan after her comment. In her policy speech, she limited her remarks on China to the promotion of “a mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests” that would keep open a channel of talks.
 
While Takaichi’s February 18 speech revealed no major changes in the policy agenda that she had been pursuing after taking office last fall, the political backdrop in the Diet has been drastically transformed. Her LDP occupies 316 seats in the Lower House – more than a two-thirds majority. This super majority gives her the power to control future of any bill because a two-thirds majority in the Lower House can enact a bill even if the Upper House has rejected it. The LDP does not have a majority in the Upper House.
 
LDP members chair 23 of 27 committees in the Lower House. It will not be easy for the opposition parties in the Committee on the Budget to accuse LDP lawmakers of wrongdoing, since an LDP member will chair this committee. Indeed, in appointing Yasutoshi Nishimura, who was deeply involved in the LDP’s slush fund scandal, as chair of the LDP election committee, Takaichi shows her indifference to ethics in the Lower House (or anywhere else). 
 
Takaichi appointed hawkish Keiji Furuya to chair the Lower House’s Commission on the Constitution to accelerate potential constitutional amendments. With a two-thirds majority the LDP can initiate any constitutional amendment without the consent of any other party. However, the LDP still lacks even a simple majority in the Upper House, meaning that the party cannot originate constitutional amendments there.
 
Notably, Takaichi failed to win the first vote in the Upper House. She was successful in the run-off that followed. Her failure in the first vote demonstrated that she still would need basic support from opposition parties if the legislative process is to move smoothly. The LDP’s super-majority will test the Diet’s ability to exercise its checks-and-balances function.