Prime Minister-in-waiting Ishiba Shigeru, President of Japan's ruling LDP, speaks at a press conference on September 27. (Source: AFP)

According to AFP news agency, speaking to reporters, Mr. Ishiba emphasized: "It is important that the new government be evaluated by the people as soon as possible and if conditions allow, I hope to call an early election, holding a general election on October 27."

With this decision, Japanese voters will go to the polls exactly one month after Mr. Ishiba won the race for the position of President of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

With the LDP holding a majority in the Japanese parliament, Mr. Ishiba is almost certain to become Japan's 102nd Prime Minister. The Northeast Asian country's legislature is expected to hold an extraordinary session on October 1 and elect Mr. Ishiba as Prime Minister to replace Mr. Kishida Fumio.

According to Nikkei Asia newspaper, Mr. Ishiba has decided to appoint three key positions in the new cabinet, specifically: former Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu will be appointed as Minister of Finance, former Defense Minister Iwaya Takeshi will be appointed as Foreign Minister, while former Defense Minister Nakatani Gen will be Minister of Defense.

As Japan prepares for a snap general election, a poll conducted by the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper on September 28-29 showed that more than half of respondents expressed high expectations for new LDP President Ishiba.

The poll was conducted via text messaging on mobile phones and questionnaires via landline with 529 and 532 valid responses respectively.

The results showed that 52% of respondents said they had “high expectations” of Mr. Ishiba, significantly higher than the 30% who answered “not much expectations.” Meanwhile, the LDP’s support rate was 33%, up 4 percentage points from the survey on August 24 and 25.

Also according to the results of this public opinion poll, among those who responded with "high expectations" for Mr. Ishiba, 64% expressed support for the LDP, 70% supported the Komeito Party - the partner in the ruling coalition with the LDP, and 46% did not support any party.

On the opposition party side, more than 60% support the Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin no Kai), 50% support the Constitutional Democratic Party - the largest opposition party today, and 20% support the Japanese Communist Party.

On the other hand, 48% of men and 57% of women expressed high expectations for Mr. Ishiba. Meanwhile, 62% of those over 70, 52% of those aged 50-60, and 49% of those aged 40-50 said they were placing expectations on Mr. Ishiba's social security solutions.

Regarding specific issues that people expect from the new LDP President, the highest number of respondents was 25% who chose “measures to deal with inflation”, followed by “economic stimulus measures” with 21%, “continuing to handle the political fund scandal” with 14%, “diplomatic and security solutions” with 11% and finally “amending the Constitution” with 3%.

When asked about the appropriate time to dissolve the House of Commons, 47% of respondents chose “after the end of debate in Parliament”, 22% chose “immediately”, 13% chose “with the Senate elections next summer” and only 9% chose “closer to the end of the term in October next year”.