Monday, September 25, 2017

Abe plans snap election in Japan amid Korea crisis

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe this morning announced he plans to dissolve parliament's lower house on Thursday for a snap election, as he seeks a fresh mandate to overcome "a national crisis".


Mr Abe, in power for five years, said he needed a mandate to shift some revenues from a planned future tax hike to social spending such as education, besides seeking support for a tough stance toward North Korea's repeated missile and nuclear tests.

"I will dissolve the lower house on September 28," Mr Abe told a nationally televised news conference.

Earlier, the head of Mr Abe's junior coalition partner, Natsuo Yamaguchi, said he understood the election would be held on 22 October.

The decision is largely seen as aimed at taking advantage of Mr Abe's recently improved support ratings and opposition disarray.

Mr Abe, whose ratings have risen to around 50% from around 30% in July, is gambling his ruling bloc can keep its lower house majority even if it loses the two-thirds "supermajority" needed to achieve his long-held goal of revising the post-war pacifist constitution to clarify the military's role.
 [rte.ie]
 25/9/17

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