With this decision, Kishida anticipates the possibility that his cabinet approval rate will begin to fall in the run-up to October 31 vote and before the opposition camp rallies its forces for a credible alternative, Asahi Shimbun newspaper noted.

Other possible concerns involve issues that usually affect the ruling party such as political mistakes and the risk of members of the cabinet producing insensitive comments that cause deep offense.

The 17-day period between the decision to dissolve the lower house and the day of voting is the shortest in the postwar period.

He wanted to establish the composition of the lower house as soon as possible to speed up the process of formulating specific policy proposals, Kishida said as explanation at a press conference.

After Kishida won the LDP leadership elections, the initial Cabinet approval rating rose to 45 percent.

While that was a big improvement over the previous one, it was also the lowest figure for the first Cabinet survey in the last 20 years.

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