TOKYO: The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and three other opposition parties jointly introduced a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s cabinet on Tuesday morning.

By submitting the motion to the House of Representatives, the all-important lower chamber of the Diet, the opposition clarified an adversarial stand against the Suga cabinet ahead of the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election in July and the Lower House election to be held by autumn.

The three other opposition parties are the Japanese Communist Party, the Democratic Party for the People and the Social Democratic Party.

Suga told Toshihiro Nikai, secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, to vote down the motion quietly. The prime minister is expected to avoid dissolving the Lower House for a general election during the current Diet session through Wednesday.

The motion came after the LDP rejected the opposition side’s request to extend the ongoing ordinary Diet session by three months.

The opposition demanded the extension, citing a need to be prepared to take thorough measures to fight the novel coronavirus crisis.

It is the first time since June 2019 for a no-confidence motion against a cabinet to be submitted.

“The Suga cabinet deserves a no-confidence motion in view of its failure to address the novel coronavirus crisis adequately and its insufficient economic measures,” Jun Azumi, Diet affairs chief of the CDP, said after submitting the motion to Lower House Speaker Tadamori Oshima together with senior members of the other opposition parties.

In response to the motion, Nikai had talks with Suga over the phone. In a meeting of senior LDP members, Nikai said he was told by the prime minister to “vote down the no-confidence motion without making a fuss about it.”

Later, Nikai told a press conference that there will be no dissolution of the Lower House during the current Diet session from a common sent standpoint.

JIJI Press