The Democratic Party of Japan and the Liberal Party will soon discuss electoral cooperation in a bid to avoid fielding overlapping candidates in some single-seat constituencies in the House of Representatives, DPJ leader Naoto Kan said Thursday.
"We will probably be able to make adjustments in single-seat constituencies," Kan told a news conference after a meeting of the secretaries general of the two parties.
Speculation is rife that the Lower House may be dissolved sometime this year. The mandated four-year term of current members expires in 2004.
But Kan did not address an idea proposed by Liberal Party chief Ichiro Ozawa to compile a joint candidate list for the proportional representation portion of the ballot, which if realized, observers believe, could lead to an effective merger of the two opposition groups.
"There are many issues (other than adjustment in single-seat areas)," Kan said. "We want to study them in a forward-looking manner."