Fumio Kishida, Japan’s 100th Prime Minister, announced on his first day in office on Monday that the House of Representatives will be dissolved on 14 October. New candidacies are due by 19 October with a general election to take place on 31 October.
Dissolving the House of Representatives on 14 October, only 10 days after he was sworn in as Prime Minister, is the fastest this has ever happened. If Kishida wins in the House of Representatives election, he will immediately be re-appointed as the 101st Prime Minister.
Kishida has pointed to COVID-19 countermeasures and the nation’s current economic issues as key areas of focus, dubbing his administration the “Administration of a new era of co-creation.”
Regarding the snap election, he added, “I hope to stimulate credible and sympathetic politics with the trust of the citizens and therefore decided to hold the general election as soon as possible.”
Kishida, who played a key role in pushing pro-IR policies through under Shinzo Abe and was involved in compiling and enacting the IR Implementation Bill in 2018, was voted in as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party at a party room election on 29 September after his predecessor, Yoshihide Suga, stepped down.
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