Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Monday announced her plan to dissolve the House of Representatives on January 23, paving the way for a snap general election scheduled for February 8.

At a press conference, Takaichi said she will dissolve the 465-member lower house on Friday, the opening day of this year's ordinary parliamentary session.

She said voting will take place on February 8, with official campaigning starting from January 27.

The election – the first since Takaichi took office on October 21 – is set to come with more than two years left in the current lower house term.

Last week, Takaichi informed senior members from her ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and coalition partner Japan Innovation Party of her intention to dissolve the all-important lower chamber.

To battle the ruling bloc, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Komeito party, a former longtime LDP ally, agreed Thursday to form the Centrist Reform Alliance, which would be the largest opposition force, for the upcoming election.

Regarding Takaichi's plan, the Japanese newspaper Kyoto Shimbun has previously questioned the rationale for dissolving the House of Representatives at this juncture. It argued that no valid justification exists for such a move, given that merely one year and three months have elapsed since the last lower house election – less than halfway through the chamber's four-year term.

The newspaper noted that this gambit, driven purely by partisan expediency and self-interest, is transparently an attempt to gain additional seats by calling a snap election, before any flaws emerge in ongoing parliamentary deliberations.

Kyoto Shimbun went further to condemn the move as a blatant abuse of the dissolution power, expressing grave concerns that it could have detrimental implications for Japan's future political trajectory and the livelihoods of its people.

(With input from Xinhua)