Japan: Early Elections on October 27

New Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba dissolved the chambers on October 9

As many expected, Shigeru Ishiba dissolved the lower house of the Japanese parliament on October 9, setting elections for October 27. The lightning fast election campaign will begin on October 15.

Ishiba did not become prime minister until October 1, after winning internal elections within the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has governed Japan almost continuously since the 1970s. His goal, analysts say, is to make the most of the consensus around him to legitimize his position. Added to this is the need to restore confidence in a party recently hit by scandals that led to the resignation of now former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Ishiba, 67, explained that “it is important for the government to win the confidence of the voters.” His program, in addition to helping the party overcome a troubling period of scandals, aims to strengthen security and defense, from a perspective that sees him, on the one hand, critical of the United States – he would like a “more balanced” relationship without compromising the alliance – while, on the other hand, he has repeatedly said he wants to support the birth of an Asian NATO.

Thus, voting will be held to elect 465 members of the lower house, 289 of whom are elected by single-member districts and 176 by proportional representation. The mandate would be four years, and the upper house would vote every three years, electing half of the representatives at each session. The Buddhist-inspired Komeito Party also sides with the LDP, while the opposition is represented by the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP). According to a recent Nikkei-TV Tokyo poll conducted by Askanews, the approval level of Ishiba’s government is 51%, the lowest among governments in the past 20 years, while 37% clearly disapprove of it. According to the poll, the Constitutional Democratic Party will have 15% support, a figure that is rising but still far from posing a threat to the LDP.