It’s another Free Friday: Prime Minister Takaichi defended her approach to fiscal policy in the upper house budget committee, but her government may also need to prepare for a challenge over legislation that allows the government to issue bonds. Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) is preparing to discuss a rate hike next week, the LDP and Ishin no Kai are signaling defeat on electoral reform, and Defense Minister Koizumi Shinjirō talked China (and defense spending) with his US counterpart.