Overview
- Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi formally informed LDP and Nippon Ishin leaders on January 14 of her plan to dissolve the chamber early in the Diet session set for January 23, with details to be announced at a January 19 news conference.
- Two schedules are under consideration for the general election, reported as January 27 announcement with February 8 voting or February 3 announcement with February 15 voting.
- LDP Secretary-General Shun'ichi Suzuki said the coalition’s win line is securing a majority of seats for the governing parties.
- Opposition parties—the Constitutional Democratic Party and Komeito—are in final-stage talks on forming a new party or deep cooperation for the election, with Komeito authorizing leader Tetsuo Saito to handle responses and a potential leaders’ meeting under discussion.
- The Hiroshima Prefecture election commission will not hold its customary pre-candidacy briefing for prospective candidates for the first time since the postwar period, highlighting compressed timelines, as local races spotlight issues such as Nago’s debate over U.S. base-related grants and northern Hokkaido’s decade-high bankruptcy liabilities.