Overview
- The House of Representatives will be dissolved on January 23, with official campaigning slated to start on January 27.
- Voting is set for February 8 in a condensed schedule that observers say could be among the shortest postwar campaigns.
- The contest is the first lower-house election since Takaichi became Japan’s first woman prime minister and since the LDP formalized a coalition with the Japan Innovation Party.
- Opposition leaders have announced a planned new party combining Komeito and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, though feasibility before voting day is in doubt.
- The Internal Affairs Ministry has directed local election commissions to prepare for the accelerated timetable.