Aso indicates lower house dissolution this spring unlikely

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TOKYO, March 15 Kyodo -
(EDS: ADDING DETAILS)
Prime Minister Taro Aso indicated Sunday that he is unlikely to dissolve the
House of Representatives for an election this spring, saying he needs to focus
his efforts on boosting the economy and improving the difficult employment
situation.
''I believe public hopes of (improvements in) economic and employment
conditions are very high...and calls for fiscal stimulus measures worth 2
percent of GDP (gross domestic product) are also mounting around the world,''
Aso said in an interview with Japan's public broadcaster Japan Broadcasting
Corp., popularly known as NHK.
''So, at this point, I cannot say that I will dissolve (the lower house) in May
or June,'' he said.
Aso, who took office last September, has said that he would not hold an
election until the state's budgets and related bills, which are to finance his
economic stimulus measures, clear parliament, saying he needs to focus on
steering the country out of an unprecedented recession.
Since the fiscal 2009 budget is now expected to be enacted in late March and
related bills to be passed around late April, political pundits have speculated
he may move to dissolve the lower house for an election around May.
But the prime minister, who doubles as president of the ruling Liberal
Democratic Party, on Friday ordered his party and its junior coalition partner,
the New Komeito party, to compile another economic stimulus package,
emphasizing that a further economic slump must be prevented.
Aso is expected to form an extra budget for the new fiscal year from April 1 to
finance the stimuli and submit it to the ongoing Diet session ending June 3.
With the submission, Aso, who is struggling with low voter support rates, is
likely to put off dissolution of the lower house until the extra budget clears
the Diet, the pundits say.
He hinted that the additional steps under consideration include measures to
bolster worsening regional economies and labor conditions as well as
investments for technologies with high growth potential such as environmental
technologies.
''Public works have often been deemed an evil and the number of such projects
has halved over the eight years, consequently exhausting the regional
economies,'' he said.
Aso also said that each party should clarify what its campaign platform will be
before the general election that must be held by the fall.
To differentiate his LDP from the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan,
Aso reiterated that he disagrees with DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa's claim that
the U.S. 7th Fleet is sufficient for securing the U.S. presence in the Far
East, and that he would ask the public to shoulder a financial burden including
a consumption tax hike to cover increasing social security costs.
Tadashi Okamura, head of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who was
also in the interview, criticized Aso for being slow in implementing his
economic measures, but Aso responded that he himself felt irritation and blamed
the divided parliament where the DPJ-led opposition bloc controls the House of
Councillors.
==Kyodo