Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected on Monday to announce a snap election for next month to take advantage of improved ratings and opposition disarray, despite criticism that he is creating a political vacuum amid worries over North Korea. Abe will hold a news conference at 6…
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected on Monday to announce a snap election for next month to take advantage of improved ratings and opposition disarray, despite criticism that he is creating a political vacuum amid worries over North Korea.
Abe will hold a news conference at 6 p.m. after meeting party executives and will likely put pledges to spend on education and child care, stay tough on North Korea and revise the constitution at the forefront of his campaign.
Abe, whose ratings have risen to around 50 percent from around 30 percent in July, is gambling that his ruling bloc can keep its lower house majority even if they lose 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.
A weekend survey by the Nikkei business daily survey showed 44 percent of voters planned to vote for Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) versus 8 percent for the main opposition Democratic Party. That was higher than the 27.7 percent a Kyodo news agency survey showed voting for Abe’s party, with 42.2 percent undecided.
Abe’s image as a strong leader has bolstered his ratings amid rising tensions over North Korea’s nuclear arms and missile programmes and overshadowed opposition criticism of the premier for suspected cronyism scandals that had eroded his support.
