Saturday morning’s Yomiuri wrote that there is an emerging consensus in Nagatacho that the premier has given up on the idea of dissolving the Lower House for a snap election to coincide with the summer Upper House race on account of the Kumamoto earthquakes. Despite this, the largest opposition DP appears to be stepping up preparations for a possible double election in July based on the assessment that the premier may take a political gambit “unexpectedly.” The DP leadership is reportedly keen to field as many candidates as possible across Japan possibly in coordination with other opposition parties because the DPJ suffered a major loss in the 2014 Lower House election due to insufficient preparation.