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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is mulling to dissolve the House of Representatives, or the lower house in the bicameral Diet, and call an election by the end of this year in efforts to address sales tax hike issue, according to local reports Tuesday.
Reports quoted analysts here that Abe may delay the planned second round of sale tax hike in October next year from current 8 percent to 10 percent as the economic recovery trend has been punched by the consumption tax hike in April from 5 percent to 8 percent.
The Japanese economy contracted an annualized real 7.1 percent in the second quarter of 2014 in wake of the first round of tax change, and the government said it will decide whether to carry out the next round on basis of the third quarter's economic growth data due out on Nov. 17.
The plan of sales tax hike is enacted by law in efforts to boost government revenue to address the swelling social security costs brought by the country's serious aging society.
Abe is considering various options to address the issue and one of them is a lower house election by the end of this year, Japan's Kyodo News quoted a government official as saying Tuesday.
The last general election was held in December 2012 and Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) got a four-year ruling term to 2016 by winning the election.
A senior LDP official was quoted by Kyodo that the prime minister may dissolve the lower house as early as Nov. 19, two days after Abe's return from a series of international meetings, and the official campaign for the election would be start on Dec. 2 or Dec. 9 if the chamber was dissolved.
Analysts here said that with support rate for Abe's cabinet declining, it is sophisticated now to dissolve the lower house and call an election as the LDP may have a large chance to win again and that victory could extend its ruling to 2018 so that the party could have more time to discuss the second round of sales tax hike.
However, Abe said Sunday before his departure to Beijing for a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation that he has no plan to dissolve the lower house.
Meanwhile, former LDP Secretary General Shigeru Ishiba, who now serves as minister in charge of vitalizing local economy, said an election could be called anytime and urged LDP lawmakers to get ready for it.
Head of the Komeito Party, the small ruling partner of the LDP, Natsuo Yamaguchi said Tuesday he will prepare his party "for a year-end election scenario."
According to a recent poll by Japanese public broadcaster NHK, support rate for the Abe's cabinet hit the lowest level since it launched in December 2012 to about 44 percent, while disapproval rate for it was up 4 percentage points to 38 percent.
The poll released Monday said about 74 percent of the respondents oppose the planned sales tax hike from 8 percent to 10 percent and about 77 percent said the increasingly high price has affected their lives, particularly in life costs. Enditem
