Koizumi Denies Early Lower House Breakup

Saitama, Sept. 21 (Jiji Press)--Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi, set to run in the Oct. 4 leadership election at Japan's ruling party, said Sunday that he will not dissolve the House of Representatives soon for a snap general election if he is elected prime minister after winning the party race.

In talks with reporters in the city of Saitama, near Tokyo, Koizumi said that he "would not be in a situation to dissolve the Lower House soon" if he becomes president of the Liberal Democratic Party and Japan's prime minister.

When he ran in last year's LDP leadership race, Koizumi said that he would break up the all-important lower chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament, as soon as possible if he became prime minister.

"What is sought now is to shape policies, not a prolonged political vacuum," Koizumi said Sunday, stressing that he will first work on realizing his policies.

"The public is calling for issues in front of us to be resolved quickly," he said. "We have to reflect on the fact that we have been unable to hold a Diet session due to an internal strife within the LDP, causing a delay in policy execution."

Koizumi on Saturday announced his intention to run in the Oct. 4 election to choose a new LDP president to succeed Shigeru Ishiba, the country's outgoing prime minister.

The party race, scheduled to kick off officially on Monday, is expected to have five candidates--Koizumi, 44, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, 64, former LDP Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi, 69, and Sanae Takaichi, 64, and Takayuki Kobayashi, 50, both former economic security ministers.

Ishiba's resignation would come after the LDP and its coalition partner, Komeito, lost their combined majority in the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, in the July 20 election. The ruling parties lost their control of the Lower House in last October's general election.

Koizumi has said that if he is elected prime minister, he would immediately consider drawing up economic measures, including those to combat rising prices, and submit a draft supplementary state budget for fiscal 2025 to an extraordinary Diet session.

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