トリガー巡り３党協議　国民、月内に方向性を

　自民、公明、国民民主３党は１２日午前、ガソリン税を一時的に引き下げる「トリガー条項」の凍結解除に関する実務者協議を国会内で開いた。現行の燃料油価格の急騰抑制を目的とする政府の補助金事業が４月末に終了することを踏まえ、５月以降の対応を検討していくことを確認。国民は凍結解除に向け、今月中に方向性を出すよう求めた。（2024/01/12-11:28）

Japan's ruling parties and the opposition Democratic Party for the People held working-level talks on Friday on the possibility of lifting the freeze on the so-called trigger clause to enable a temporary gasoline tax cut.
   From the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Seiji Kihara, acting secretary-general of the party, and Satsuki Katayama, former regional revitalization minister, joined the talks. The other participants were House of Councillors lawmaker Hisatake Sugi from Komeito, which is the LDP's junior coalition partner, and Tetsuji Isozaki, another lawmaker from the upper chamber of Japan's parliament, from the DPFP.
   The four agreed to discuss how the trigger clause should be handled in and after May, with a government subsidy program aimed at curbing fuel prices ending in April. The DPFP claimed that an overall direction regarding the fate of the clause should be laid out by the end of this month.
   In November last year, DPFP leader Yuichiro Tamaki asked Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who doubles as LDP president, to lift the freeze on the trigger clause, in exchange for his party voting in favor of a fiscal 2023 supplementary budget. Following the deal, Kishida instructed then LDP policy chief Koichi Hagiuda to launch talks on the matter.