Okinawa Lawmakers Deadlocked Over Washington Office Budget

OKINAWA, Mar 17 (News On Japan) - Okinawa’s ruling and opposition lawmakers failed to reach a consensus on March 13th regarding revisions to the 2025 fiscal general budget, with the Washington office’s operational expenses emerging as a key point of contention. The debate remained deadlocked.

The Washington office has come under scrutiny over its establishment and management, prompting the prefectural assembly to set up a special investigative committee and the prefectural government to launch its own review panel.

The 2025 fiscal budget proposal includes approximately 39 million yen for the Washington office’s operations. However, the opposition, including the Liberal Democratic Party-affiliated group, opposes this allocation, citing potential legal violations.

In February, the ruling bloc proposed reducing the office’s budget to about 26 million yen. However, on March 13th, the opposition rejected the compromise, arguing that the prefectural review panel’s findings had deepened suspicions surrounding the office.

Negotiations between ruling and opposition parties will continue, but the timing of the revised budget proposal’s submission to the special budget committee remains uncertain.

Source: 沖縄ニュースOTV

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