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With the virus surging across much of the nation and following a string of by-election defeats
for his Liberal Democratic Party, ir's looking more and more likely that Prime Minister
Yoshihide Suga won't dissolve the House of Representatives until afier the end of the Tokyo
Games.
The prime minister now plans to put more of his energy into the fight against COVID-19 and
other issues, including diplomatic challenges, with a view toward shoring up public support
for his administration toward autumn.
Asked about the LDP's latest election blunder by reporters last Monday, Suga said, "My
government will make all-out efforts so that the second round of coronavirus vaccinations for
elderly citizens who want to get inoculations will be completed hopefully by the end of July."
Suga stressed that "our top priority is the fight against the coronavirus," responding to a
question about the timing for dissolving the Lower House.
A senior government official said that it is “utterly impossible" to dissolve the Lower House
any time soon, citing the spread of coronavirus variants in Japan.
