TOKYO (Reuters) - 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 toward a volatile North Korea and rebalance the social security system. “Some people are really sort of cynical about the fact that Mr. Abe has been basically calling the nation to duck and cover while North Korea launches a missile, and now calls a snap election presumably because it’s okay to conduct a political campaign even when North Korea is flying missiles,” said Nakano. A weekend survey by the Nikkei business daily showed 44 percent of voters planned to vote for Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) versus 8 percent for the main opposition Democratic Party and another 8 percent for a new party launched by popular Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike. Nevertheless, one fifth of those polled said they were still undecided, potentially opening the door for gains by a new party formed by allies of the popular mayor of Tokyo Yuriko Koike, which will field dozens of candidates. Economically, the world is making a big move while Japan’s presence is gradually declining,” said Koike. But Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University in Japan, said there was “no opposition worthy of the name in Japan”. Abe, whose ratings have risen to around 50 percent 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.
The Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō Abe calls a snap election with the election to be held on October 22.