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Aso calls snap elections

Taro Aso

SINGAPORE: Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, under political siege for long, has set a snap general election on August 30, several weeks ahead of schedule.

Following the move, which he announced in Tokyo on Monday night, his government faced mixed fortunes in the bicameral Parliament on Tuesday. The House of Representatives, which he intended to dissolve next week, rejected a no-confidence motion on the Aso administration. However, the opposition-controlled House of Councillors, upper chamber of the Diet (Parliament), adopted a non-binding censure motion against him.

Mr. Aso, third Prime Minister in almost as many years since the exit of reformist Junichiro Koizumi, has had to reckon with a series of low ratings. A recent opinion survey left him with an acceptability quotient of hardly 20 per cent. Against this background, Mr. Aso led the Liberal Democratic Party to a stinging loss in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly poll on Sunday. The LDP has been in power at the national level for almost 50 years except for a brief spell. The loss prompted him to seek a fresh national mandate.

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