LDP Leader Candidates Discuss Possible Snap Election

Tokyo, Sept. 14 (Jiji Press)--Nine candidates in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's Sept. 27 leadership election participated in a debate hosted by the Japan National Press Club on Saturday, discussing a possible snap election for the House of Representatives, as well as political reform following the party's "slush fund" scandal.

Former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, 43, reiterated his willingness to dissolve the Lower House for a snap election "as soon as possible" if he becomes the next LDP leader and then prime minister.

Meanwhile, Koizumi suggested that he would be reluctant to face budget committee meetings in both chambers of the Diet before calling a snap election. "After the money scandal, we cannot advance any policies unless we face the people's judgment soon," he said.

Former LDP Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba, 67, said that it will be the responsibility of a new prime minister to provide the public with information to make a judgment. "It is the budget committees where real exchanges (with opposition parties) take place," he noted.

Koizumi, Ishiba and economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, 63, have been the top three favorites in many media polls on who should be the next LDP leader.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]