The ruling and opposition parties have agreed that speakers at plenary sessions of the Diet will no longer be required to wear masks from Monday, when the ordinary Diet session convenes.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's policy speech and three other government speeches are scheduled on the first day of the session.
The decision to lift the requirement, which has been part of measures against the novel coronavirus, was made at Thursday's meetings of the Rules and Administration Committees for both the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors.
