By RIA Novosti,
Tokyo : Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has announced that he will dissolve parliament next week, with elections scheduled for August 30, the Kyodo News agency reported on Monday.
The four-year term of the lower house, the House of Representatives, expires on September 10, and an election must be held by October.
“I want to seek the people’s mandate by dissolving the House of Representatives early in the week beginning July 21. Election Day is August 30,” the prime minister was quoted as saying.
The official election campaign is due to begin on August 18.
At a meeting with members of his cabinet and coalition leaders, Aso apologized for the Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) loss of 20 seats in Sunday’s election to the Tokyo metropolitan assembly. The loss to the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) was the fifth successive local election defeat for the LDP.
Aso had suggested that parliament be dissolved earlier in mid-August, but his party and allies opposed an earlier date, saying that time was needed following the defeat in the regional elections.
Aso and his government’s popularity ratings have continued to plummet amid Japan’s worsening economic situation.
Meanwhile, the DPJ, along with other opposition parties said it had submitted a no-confidence motion against Aso and his cabinet to the lower house, where the LDP-New Komeito bloc has a comfortable majority.