Political parties gearing up for Lower House election

September 19, 2017

TOKYO- Japanese political parties accelerated Tuesday their preparations for a snap election for the House of Representatives expected to take place next month.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reportedly plans to dissolve the all-important lower chamber of parliament as early as when it is convened into an extraordinary session possibly on Sept. 28.

Each party is stepping up preparations to field candidates and lay out campaign promises for the Lower House election that is widely expected to be held on Oct. 22, with the official campaign period starting on Oct. 10.

At an executive meeting of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai said he was told by Abe that the prime minister is considering dissolving the Lower House at an early date and that he will decide on the timing after he returns from the UN General Assembly session in New York.

Abe, also president of the LDP, instructed Nikai to start preparations for the election, according to the secretary-general.

Nikai later told a press conference, "We'll run our campaign with a resolve to have all candidates elected."

Komeito, the junior coalition partner of the LDP, held an emergency meeting of its executives.

After the meeting, Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi told reporters, "We'll begin considering how we should run our campaign."

Meanwhile, Kazunori Yamanoi, parliamentary affairs head of the main opposition Democratic Party, harshly criticized Abe's decision to dissolve the Lower House shortly.

"It's totally unthinkable that the prime minister will dissolve the Lower House to get the timing right only for winning the election, for his own reason, at a time when Japanese citizens are frightened by the North Korean missile crisis," Yamanoi told reporters.

The focus of the DP's preparations is on whether the party should unify candidates with the Japanese Communist Party and whether it should field candidates in the constituencies of Hirofumi Ryu and other Lower House lawmakers who recently submitted their resignations from the DP.

The defectors are hoping to join a new party to be set up by independents close to popular Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike.

Osaka Governor Ichiro Matsui, who heads opposition Nippon Ishin no Kai, told reporters in Osaka, western Japan, "We'd like to claim that we are the only party that can clash head-on against the LDP with counter policy proposals." Jiji Press