SHINZO ABE ANNOUNCES SNAP ELECTION

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he would dissolve Parliament’s lower house on Thursday for a snap election, seeking a mandate to stick to his tough stance towards a volatile North Korea and rebalance the social security system.

Abe, in power for five years, had been expected to call the election for next month to take advantage of improved support and disarray in the Opposition camp.

“I’ll demonstrate strong leadership and stand at the forefront to face a national crisis,” Abe told reporters, mentioning Japan’s fastageing population and North Korea.

“This is my responsibility as leader and my mission as prime minister.”

Natsuo Yamaguchi, the head of Abe’s junior coalition partner the Komeito party, said he understood the election would be on October 22.

Abe said he would redirect some revenue from a planned sales tax hike in 2019 to child care and education rather than paying back public debt, although he added he would not abandon fiscal reform. Rebalancing the spending would offset the potential negative effect on consumption from the tax rise, he said.

“We will turn Japan’s social security system into one that responds to all generations by boldly diverting policy resources to resolve the two major concerns —child rearing and (elderly) nursing care “that working generations confront,” he said.

Abe rejected criticism that holding an election now would create a political vacuum at a time of rising tension over North Korea’s missile and nuclear arms programme.

Pyongyang has fired ballistic missiles over Japan twice in the last month and conducted its sixth and biggest nuclear test on September 3 “We must not give in to North Korea’s threats. By gaining a mandate from the people with this election, I will forge ahead with strong diplomacy,” Abe said, adding that now was the time to put more pressure on Pyongyang, not open dialogue.

Abe, whose ratings have risen to

I’ll demonstrate strong leadership and stand at the forefront to face a national crisis... This is my responsibility as leader and my mission as prime minister” SHINZO ABE PM, Japan

around 50 per cent from around 30 per cent in July, is gambling his ruling bloc can keep its lower house majority even if it loses the two-thirds “super majority” needed to achieve his long-held goal of revising the post-war pacifist constitution to clarify the military’s role.

He said his goal was for his coalition to retain a majority in the chamber.

A weekend survey by the Nikkei business daily showed 44 per cent of voters planned to vote for Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) versus 8 per cent for the main opposition Democratic Party and another 8 per cent for a new party launched by popular Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike. The Nikkei poll was more positive for Abe’s prospects than a Kyodo news agency survey that showed his LDP garnering 27.7 per cent support, with 42.2 per cent undecided.