The leader of the Japanese Constitutional Democratic Party, Yukio Edano, held a New Year press conference in Ise City, Mie Prefecture on the 4th, stating the target for the summer upper house election, 'at least achieve a situation where the ruling party has less than half of the seats to be replaced', and strive to ensure that the ruling party has less than half of the seats, including non-replaced seats. Edano criticized the huge budget of over 115 trillion yen (about 5.4 trillion yuan) in the budget for the fiscal year 2025, and will strive to make modifications. He said, 'We will rigorously examine it from the perspective of taxpayers and engage in serious discussions with other opposition parties about what can be achieved.' The government and the ruling party plan to convene the regular Diet session on January 24th, and therefore anticipate the upper house election to be held on July 20th. Regarding this schedule, Edano opposes it, stating, '(The 20th) is the middle day of a three-day weekend, and the voter turnout may decrease'.
