Abe calls snap polls amid N Korea crisis

Tokyo, September 25

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 fast-ageing 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. Rebalancing the spending would offset the potential negative effect on consumption from the tax rise, 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 around 50 per cent from around 30 percent 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.

Given the results seen in other major countries, however, some political analysts are not ruling out the unexpected. “Abe’s big gamble could yield a big surprise,” independent political analysts Minoru Morita said. — Reuters