With the fiscal 2009 budget and related bills safely passed, all eyes in Nagata-cho are trained on Prime Minister Taro Aso to see when he will dissolve the Lower House and call an election. But he is already pursuing an extra budget.
Voices within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party are already trying to pull Aso in various directions — from a spring election, a late summer poll, to waiting until the end of the Lower House term in September. He is playing his cards close to his vest.
Critics say Aso's decision will probably be swayed by whether Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa quits over his chief secretary's recent indictment over illicit funds from Nishimatsu Construction Co.