Nakasone Sets Stage for July 6 Double Election

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone dissolved the lower house of Parliament on Monday, paving the way for an unusual election involving both houses on July 6.

Dissolution of the lower house 18 months ahead of schedule allows Nakasone to set the date of the lower house election to coincide with a scheduled election for the upper house. In the past, such a double election has worked to the advantage of the party in power.

Political analysts see in Nakasone’s timing an attempt to win a clear lower-house majority for his Liberal Democratic Party and thus prolong his tenure as prime minister.

Under existing rules, the Liberal Democratic Party limits its leaders to two terms of two years each, and Nakasone’s second term will end Oct. 30. But many political observers believe that if the Liberal Democrats do well in the lower house election, the party may change its rules and allow Nakasone to stay on as party leader and, thus, as prime minister.

At present, the Liberal Democrats are six seats shy of a majority in the lower house. They govern with a coalition formed after the 1983 elections, when poor performances by the Liberal Democrats forced Nakasone for the first time to create a coalition with the splinter Liberal Democratic Club, a small, conservative parliamentary group.

Conservatives Inducted

In three of the four most recent elections for the lower house, the Liberal Democrats failed to obtain a simple majority and were forced to induct into the party a number of conservatives who had won election as independents. In 1980, though, when voting for both houses took place on the same day, they won a clear majority, 284 of the 511 seats.

Some commentators suggest that a double election will attract more floating votes and help the ruling party, but they stress that it is not at all clear that Nakasone’s personal popularity will translate into a parliamentary majority for his party.

Even if Nakasone’s strategy fails and he is forced to step down, his influence as a party elder is certain to be great if the election gives the Liberal Democrats a majority. Former prime ministers wield tremendous power here; they have much to say about who heads the party and who may be prime minister.

But if the Liberal Democrats fail to obtain a majority, Nakasone will come in for strong criticism from his three main rivals within the party--Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe, Finance Minister Noboru Takeshita and former Foreign Minister Kiichi Miyazawa.

All four opposition parties, which have attacked Nakasone for dissolving the lower house early, boycotted Monday’s special session of Parliament. One party has threatened to take legal action.

“This is a dishonest dissolution,” said Koichi Sakai of the Buddhist Clean Government Party.

A Socialist member of Parliament, Takako Doi, called it “a nonsense dissolution.” Another opposition figure accused Nakasone of engineering the election “simply to further his own political career.”