Japan PM Takaichi Says to Dissolve Lower House Fri.

Tokyo, Jan. 19 (Jiji Press)–Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi announced Monday that she will dissolve the House of Representatives at the start of the ordinary parliamentary session, which is to be convened on Friday, to call a snap general election. The prime minister said she believes that the new ruling coalition government, formed in October last year between her Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner, the Japan Innovation Party, needs to seek a public mandate in the Lower House election. “I want the public to decide whether Sanae Takaichi is suitable as prime minister” through the election for the all-important lower chamber of the Diet, the country’s parliament, she said at a press conference. She said the election will be held on Feb. 8, with the official campaign period set to begin on Jan. 27. There will be only 16 days between the Lower House dissolution and the election day, the shortest such period since the end of World War II. The prime minister’s decision to call a snap poll just over a year after the previous Lower House election, held in October 2024, has met with criticism. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]