Lawmakers representing various political parties and groups meet in the parliament on Nov. 5, 2021. (Kyodo)

       TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's ruling and opposition parties agreed Friday to hold a special parliamentary session for three days from Wednesday, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida set to be reappointed as Japan's leader.

       The special session follows Sunday's general election, in which Kishida's Liberal Democratic Party and its smaller partner Komeito retained a comfortable majority in the House of Representatives.

       Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno formally conveyed the Diet schedule to the ruling and opposition parties in the morning. On the first day of the session, a new lower house speaker will be chosen from the LDP, likely former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda, who leads the largest faction in the major ruling party.

       A vice speaker will be picked from the main opposition and second largest party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. The party's current leader, Yukio Edano, is expected to step down on the last day of the parliament session after his party lost a number of seats in the lower house election.

       The government plans to separately hold an extraordinary Diet session within this year as it seeks to pass a supplementary budget for fiscal 2021 that incorporates new economic measures aimed at helping Japan recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

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