A serious schism has developed within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Prime Minister Taro Aso between those who demand an early general election and those who favor waiting for the political and economic situation to improve so that the party has a better chance of winning.

This situation resembles a bitter disagreement that existed among Japan's top military leaders in the closing days of the Pacific War as to how to meet the American forces approaching Okinawa. One group sought to launch a decisive battle while the other thought the final showdown should be delayed as much as possible. This discord and the resulting indecisiveness resulted in the death of nearly 190,000 Japanese citizens, half of them civilians.

After Aso was elected LDP president Sept. 20 and named prime minister four days later, a general consensus among politicians in both the ruling coalition and the opposition camp was that he had long made up his mind to dissolve the Lower House and call a general election within a matter of weeks rather than months. That there were grounds for such speculation was proved by an article Aso contributed to the monthly Bungei Shunju magazine, which appeared on bookstore shelves Oct. 10. In that article, he unequivocally stated that he had made up his mind to call an early election.