Japan’s new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba dissolved the lower house of parliament on Tuesday, ahead of snap elections on October 27 in the hope that his party, the conservative right-wing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), will emerge victorious.
Ishiba took over from Fumio Kishida on October 1. “We want to approach this election honestly and sincerely so that the government can win the public’s trust,” Ishiba said Wednesday. His party has been plagued by scandals for some time.
His predecessor’s government had become unpopular with the people, partly due to a party financing scandal. Kishida also failed to combat inflation. Currently, the LDP and its coalition partner Komeito hold a majority of 290 of the 465 seats in the lower house.
“It makes sense that he wanted to quickly call elections once the party’s ‘face’ had changed, while the momentum was still there,” said Yu Uchiyama, a professor of political science at the University of Tokyo.
Ishiba’s decision to bring forward the election has also been criticized. Some voters see it as a disappointing sign that he has “bowed to pressure within his party,” Uchiyama said. The opposition has also criticized the early election date, saying it leaves little time for debate.
The main opposition party, the centre-left Democratic Party for the Constitution (PDC), is trying to distinguish itself from the LDP on several diversity issues, including the legalisation of same-sex marriage.