Japan PM Faces No-confidence Motion; Announces Polls

Following dribbing of his party in Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly polls that is being seen as an indicator of voters’s sentiment, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has said that he will dissolve parliament next week and hold snap general elections for August 30.

After the decision was announced Monday, Japan’s opposition coalition said that it filed a no-confidence motion to parliamentt against the prime minister and his Cabinet.

Aso announced his decision for new elections after talks Monday with officials from his ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

The move is being construed as one last attempt to keep the ruling party in power after the Liberal Democrats and their coalition lost their majority Sunday in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. The assembly elections have been closely watched as a bellwether of what’s ahead for Aso’s party.

It should be mentioned that the LDP won just 38 seats in the 127-member Tokyo assembly, while the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, led by Yukio Hatoyama, became the assembly’s largest party, winning 54 seats.

Aso took office last September.  He has been hounded by low approval ratings for the way he handled the economic crisis and for various controversial statements.