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.