The government plans to convene an extraordinary Diet session on Oct. 4 to elect the successor of outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato informed both the ruling and opposition parties on Friday. The government will formalize the decision at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday to convene the session.
Kato announced the plan at meetings of the Rules and Administration committees for both the upper and lower houses on Friday.
At the extraordinary session, a new prime minister will be nominated and elected on Oct. 4, and then a new cabinet is expected to be formed. The terms of office for lower house members expire on Oct. 21.
The government and the ruling parties want the term of the extraordinary Diet session and the deliberation schedule to be decided under the new cabinet.
Opposition parties are demanding that the new prime minister deliver a policy speech and that a question-and-answer session with representatives of ruling and opposition parties be held.
As for the House of Representatives election, the government and the ruling parties are considering kicking off the official campaign period on Oct. 26, and holding the election and counting ballots on Nov. 7.
Under the current Constitution, it will be the first time that a lower house election will be held after the terms of office for lower house members expire.
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