Tokyo - Japan's opposition parties were expected to submit a non-binding censure motion against Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in the House of Councillors Wednesday afternoon.

The motion was likely to pass the opposition-controlled upper house, which would make Fukuda the first Japanese prime minister in postwar Japan to face a censure motion passage in the upper house.

The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) are submitting the censure motion because the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition the New Komeito Party refused to abolish a health-care insurance programme for those aged 75 and up.

The programme, which was introduced in April, has been criticized for imposing a heavier financial burden on elderly people with low income.

"The public is disappointed with the Fukuda Cabinet. We will pass the motion to respond to citizens' calls for a new administration," DPJ Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama said, urging Fukuda to dissolve the House of Representatives to call a general election.

The DPJ has cited Fukuda's "insufficient" handling of domestic issues including pension issues and Defence Ministry scandals.

"I understand that they want to appeal to the public politically, but I don't really see what kind of meaning it would have legally, or in the parliament," Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said.

The ruling parties were expected to approve a motion of confidence in the more powerful lower house on Thursday.

A censure motion passed by the upper house has no legal binding under the constitution, while the lower house's approval would lead to the cabinet's resignation or dissolving the lower house.

hHowever, former Defence Agency chief Fukushiro Nukaga was forced to resign in 1998 when the upper house approved a censure motion against him over a scandal in the agency. (dpa)