Overview
- Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi met with LDP upper-house leader Masaji Matsuyama on Monday to seek a way out of a stalled final Diet session caused by allegations over smear videos and disputes over bill handling.
- Takaichi publicly defended the accuracy of her listed U.S. Congressional Fellow experience in the Diet, saying she moved from an initial internship role to formal CF duties and supplied a supporting letter from the member’s office.
- The Constitutional Democratic Party’s Hokkaido chapter approved a confrontational campaign plan to block an LDP majority in the prefectural assembly and to field a challenger against the incumbent governor in next spring’s unified local elections.
- In the long-running political-funds false-entry case, former lawmaker Yasumasa Ohno and a former policy secretary filed appeals against Tokyo District Court fines on Monday and prosecutors lodged appeals the same day.
- Local recovery and public-safety updates include Futaba Town’s verification that radiation exposure risk from lifting evacuation orders in three districts is “sufficiently low” with decontamination 60–78% complete, and a report that assaults on station staff and train crews rose to 590 incidents in fiscal 2025.