The activities of the Diet are limited to the duration of the annual session and the extra sessions. The Cabinet, in effect, decides to convene the Diet, but the latter determines the time and period during which it operates. Negotiations among the Cabinet and the Diet, the ruling and opposition parties regarding the opening, closing and extension of the Diet, are highly political issues.
While the Diet is not in session, committee(s) by either house of the Diet may consider matters for conducting activities related to national policies. Such consideration may be used as an alternative to the activities of “the Diet” when the Cabinet does not decide to convene extra session even though one-fourth or more of the total members of either House make a demand to do so, according to Article 53 of the Constitution of Japan.
This paper researches on the actual status of 300 cases of those considerations from 2003 to 2022. In particular, it clarifies that considerations have significant impacts on the interpretation and operation of the requirement to convene extra session and the fiscal democracy. Such consideration is an important issue in unexplored study on constitutional law and/or political science.
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