Japan Parliament Dissolved For Oct 20 Election

The prospect of elections for the 500-seat Lower House, the first since July 1993 polls ended 38 years of unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party and ushered in an era of coalition government, has so far failed to excite an apathetic public.

Most analysts expect a record-low turnout for a heated but issue-free contest as weeks of wrangling between Hashimoto's LDP and two smaller coalition partners over timing of the polls gives way to an LDP search for post-election partners.

One point of focus is whether the LDP, which regained the reins of power in 1994 in a coalition with the Social Democratic Party and New Party Sakigake, can capture a simple majority or will be forced to shop for new coalition partners.

 

Hashimoto, who is also LDP president, urged his party to fight to give him a second term unfettered by the need to compromise with coalition partners.

Although the LDP has been the biggest party over the last three years, we still don't have a simple majority, he said.

Hashimoto is expected to pin his bid for a second term on an improving economy and his handling of a bitter dispute with the southern prefecture of Okinawa over US military bases.

The opposition Shinshinto (New Frontier Party), headed by former LDP powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa, plans to attack the government over an unpopular sales tax rise due in April.

Shinshinto, made of components of the reformist government that ruled briefly in 1993-94, will also offer a plan for a drastic tax-system overhaul and to cut bureaucratic red tape.

To Shinshinto's chagrin