By IPS Correspondents
TOKYO, Jul 13 2009 (IPS)

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso called for sudden elections next month after his party suffered a major defeat in Sunday's Tokyo metropolitan election. Aso will dissolve the parliament on July 21, paving the way for the national election.

"The calling for a national election has the consensus from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and our coalition partner, the New Komeito," Aso said. "We agreed the election will take place on August 30."

Experts say the results of Sunday’s election, a barometer for the upcoming nationwide vote, was symptomatic of rising public anger over government scandals, policy flip-flops and Aso’s perceived inability to tackle the worst recession to hit Japan since World War II.

"They are angry about the government’s poor performance in lowering the misery index and turned off by Aso’s lack of leadership skills," said Jeffrey Kingston, a political specialist at the Tokyo-based Temple University. "Tokyo sent a loud and clear message that the LDP is living on borrowed time."

If elections were held immediately, analysts predict that the LDP would lose hands down, even if Aso, now widely unpopular, resigned.

A win by the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) would be historic and end more than 50 years of nearly unbroken rule by Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The LDP ascended to power in 1955 and has ruled Japan almost continuously for the past 50 years.

"It was a local election, but we have to sincerely accept the results," the spokesman said.

The LDP won 38 seats in Tokyo while the New Komeito won 23, leaving the ruling block three seats short of the 64 needed for a majority.

Naoto Kan, the deputy president of the opposition DPJ, said the results showed that Tokyo’s residents said "No" to Aso, the LDP and the New Komeito.

Meanwhile, politicians from the ruling coalition are concerned about a sharp electoral slide in the up coming elections.

"It is troublesome for me," said LDP governor Shintaro Ishihara in a press conference on Monday. "Sunday’s election reflects how the government caused these national problems, which have now come to Tokyo."

Osaka’s Governor Toru Hashimoto called the LDP insensitive and blamed them for causing everyone to suffer.

"If Prime Minister Aso thinks the election in Tokyo doesn’t reflect the national feelings about him and his party, then he should quit as a politician, because he’s way off."

Aso said Saturday he doesn’t have any intention of resigning and would not bow to any move to oust him. In fact, analysts believe Aso’s decision to have an election next month is to prevent calls from within his own party to resign as its leader.

"Aso must assume that if he further delays the general election, the infighting with the LDP will worsen, possibly forcing him out of office," Robert Dujarric from the Temple University in Japan, told IPS. "It further discredits the ruling party in the eyes of the voters regardless of whether Aso himself weathers the storm. They may think there’s little chance the economy will improve under him."

On the election campaign front, Dujarric says, the LDP may think that it has much more experience running a national campaign than the DPJ.

"Therefore, the LDP leaders may believe that if they go to the polls quickly, they will be better than their DPJ opponents at running a campaign on short notice. Its chances of winning are slim."

What needs to be done now is to magnify the differences between the ruling coalition and its challenger, according to Professor Tomohiko Taniguchi at Keio University

"The differences lie far more in the national defense, foreign policy areas than elsewhere, the areas such as health care, pension, employment etc." he told IPS.

The DPJ has long been silent on crucial issues like national defense, and the country’s relationship with the U.S., analysts say, the public has the right to know how they would steer these issues if they came to power.

Anyhow, whoever becomes Japan’s next prime minister faces the daunting task of reviving the country’s flagging economy, a declining and graying population and the loss of employment opportunities in rural areas.

"For the ruling LDP, the chance to win the general election looks slimmer than ever before," Tanoguchi said. "Yet to have another round of internal struggle to somehow churn out a yet new Prime Ministerial candidate is doomed to end up a storm digging exercise for them, one has to say."

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