Abe Cabinet survives no-confidence motion

June 25, 2019

Tokyo--Japan's House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament, voted down a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet on Tuesday.

The focus in the Japanese political scene will shift to a triennial election for the House of Councillors, the upper chamber, as Abe's ruling camp has no plans to extend the current Diet session, set to end on Wednesday.

The Upper House election, considered one of the biggest political events in Japan this year, is expected to be held on July 21. Abe has decided not to call a snap election for the Lower House on the same day as the Upper House poll.

The no-confidence motion, submitted by opposition parties, including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, earlier on Tuesday, was rejected by a majority vote mainly from Abe's Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, Komeito.

In a Lower House speech before the motion was put to a vote, CDPJ leader Yukio Edano harshly criticized the Abe cabinet and urged the prime minister to resign promptly.

"The Abe cabinet is the worst in the history of Japan's constitutional politics. We can no longer ignore the current situation destroying parliamentary democracy from its very foundation," Edano said. Jiji Press