Japan's House of Representatives dissolved...The general election is in full swing.

[Anchor]
Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba has decided to dissolve the House of Representatives and hold a general election on the 27th for the first time in three years.

The decision to dissolve the House of Representatives in eight days immediately after taking office as prime minister and the general election in 26 days were all made in the shortest period of time after Japan's war.

I'm connecting to the local area in Japan. Correspondent Kim Se-ho!

Tell us about Prime Minister Ishiba's decision to dissolve the House of Representatives and his future prospects.

[Reporter]
At the plenary session of the Japanese House of Representatives held this afternoon, the House of Representatives was dissolved by the chairman of the House of Representatives reading the dissolution report.

All 465 members of Japan's House of Representatives will be removed from their seats.

The dissolution of the House of Representatives is the shortest period in history, eight days after Prime Minister Ishiba took office.

With the dissolution of the House of Representatives, Japanese politics have now entered a full-fledged general election phase.

In Japan, a parliamentary cabinet system, the prime minister can dissolve the House of Representatives and ask the people for confidence in the government.

Prime Minister Ishiba announced his plan to dissolve the new regime immediately after the election of the Liberal Democratic Party on the 30th of last month, saying it is important for the new regime to be judged by the people as early as possible.

Ishiba's decision is interpreted as an attempt to increase expectations for the launch of a new government, leading to an increase in the number of seats in the Liberal Democratic Party.

However, immediately after the inauguration of the Ishiba Cabinet, the approval rating was around 50 percent, the lowest after the Aso Taro Cabinet.

Prime Minister Ishiba needs a landslide victory, not just a victory,
If the
LDP alone fails to secure more than 233 seats, a majority of the 465 seats in the House of Representatives, it could significantly disrupt the operation of the regime.

After then-Prime Minister Kishida dissolved the House of Representatives in 2021, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party alone secured 261 seats.

In particular, more than 10 lawmakers were excluded from the nomination for the general election, and most of them are Abe, raising the possibility of internal strife within the party.

Some even predict that if Prime Minister Ishiba does not get the results he wants, Abe's influence in the party could grow.

I'm Kim Se-ho of YTN in Tokyo.