Finance Association News October 10th (Editor Maran) On October 1st, Liberal Democratic Party leader Shoji Stone, who became the Prime Minister of Japan, launched his first attack on the Japanese Parliament. On Wednesday, Shoji Stone announced the dissolution of the Japanese House of Representatives and an early election on October 27th.

This move was both expected and unexpected. Critics believe that while Shoji Stone had declared an early election, dissolving the House of Representatives 8 days into his term seemed premature.

Critics point out that Shoji Stone's rush to hold the election is to retain the ruling position of the Liberal Democratic Party as much as possible during the honeymoon period, and to mitigate the negative impact of political bribery. However, his decision to dissolve the parliament and form a new government without broad discussions on domestic and foreign policies is undoubtedly an evasion strategy.

However, Shoji Stone's initial public support rate as Prime Minister is only around 50%, the lowest among newly appointed Japanese Prime Ministers. An early election is one of the rare opportunities for Shoji Stone to consolidate his political gravity, and for him, the sooner the election, the better.

Gambling

Shoji Stone stated on Wednesday that he needs time to promote his policy ideas within the Liberal Democratic Party, as he does not belong to any important faction within the party and is not a heavyweight leader.

For a long time, Shoji Stone has portrayed himself as a 'lone wolf' within the Liberal Democratic Party, which provided him with an excellent opportunity to be elected as the leader of the party, but also created challenges for his policies to gain traction.

None of the high-ranking officials in Shigeru Ishiba's new cabinet come from the largest faction within the Liberal Democratic Party, the Abe faction. He also stated that he will not accept members from the Abe faction in the early election, as the Abe faction was the main participant in last year's political funds scandal. This is a key strategy for Shigeru Ishiba's 'clean politics' slogan, but it is considered too strict within the LDP.

This feeling of constraint that cannot be widely accepted is also one of the main reasons for pushing Shigeru Ishiba to hold an early election. Previously, in order to quell controversies, Ishiba avoided talking about many initiatives he promised during the election for LDP president, such as an Asian version of NATO and an equal relationship between the Japan-US military alliance.

Shigeru Ishiba clearly hopes to form a parliament more favorable to himself. He also confidently states that the Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Komeito party, have hope to win the majority of seats in the early election.

To ensure the smooth implementation of his policies, Shigeru Ishiba must ensure that more than half of the 465 seats in the parliament are willing to cast their support votes for him. Analysis indicates that whether the LDP-Komeito coalition can obtain 233 seats (more than half) will be the highlight of this election, and for the parliament to operate smoothly, this coalition needs a stable majority of 244 seats.

But if this coalition fails to secure a majority of seats, it will have to seek alliances with other opposition parties, which would mean more variables and difficulties for Shigeru Ishiba's new cabinet.

Editor/ping