Liberal Democratic Party heavyweight Shigeru Ishiba said Sunday that maintaining majority control of the House of Representatives will be the top goal for the ruling coalition if Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, his major rival in the ruling party, this week calls a snap election.
During a speech in Tottori Prefecture, Ishiba, currently serving as regional revitalization minister, also said that even if Abe were to postpone the consumption tax hike planned in 2015 in tandem with announcing a dissolution of the Lower House, the prime minister "must present a picture of how we will maintain fiscal discipline and what to do with our social security system."
Ishiba, who as LDP secretary-general was in charge of the party's election strategy, said Abe must make clear his purpose for dissolving the Lower House. "The prime minister knows best that he shouldn't dissolve (the Lower House) just because he feels like it," Ishiba said during a speech in the city of Tottori, his constituency.
Abe is widely expected to announce in the next few days that he will dissolve the Lower House in preparation for a general election, with voting day most likely falling on Dec. 14.
The LDP-Komeito ruling coalition holds a comfortable two-thirds majority in the powerful chamber after routing the Democratic Party of Japan in the last general election, in December 2012. Lower House members have roughly two more years left before their terms expire.
The opposition camp, which is largely in agreement on the need to delay the tax hike on account of the faltering economy, alleges Abe is maneuvering to hold an early general election without a just cause, to capitalize on the current disarray in the opposition ranks.