Sunday's election for the Lower House stands out as abnormal, but not because of its abruptness. Many surprise elections have been held before. On March 14, 1953, for instance, then Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, who was president of the Liberal Party, dissolved the Lower House following the passage of a no-confidence motion submitted against his administration by the opposition in protest of his "bakayaro!"(idiot!) remark to an opposition questioner.
The approval of the motion, despite the fact that the Liberal Party held a majority in the Lower House, was the result of a factional power struggle within the ruling party. A rival group headed by Ichiro Hatoyama did not take part in the voting, leaving the party short of the majority required to defeat the motion. Subsequently the group formed its own party, "Hatoyama Liberal Party," and the next year Hatoyama and his followers created the Democratic Party.
Although the "bakayaro!" dissolution was anything but normal, it has not been unusual in Japan's postwar politics for a ruling party to enter an election in a divided state.