Japan PM eyes snap election this year: reports


Team Udayavani, Sep 17, 2017, 11:29 AM IST

Tokyo :  Japanese premier Shinzo Abe is considering a snap election as early as next month, reports said Sunday, as he sees recovering public support with attention focused on tensions over North Korea.

Abe floated the idea of holding a vote on October 22 or October 29 in meetings with senior ruling party officials, Jiji Press and the Asahi Shimbun reported, citing unnamed government and ruling party sources.

Other media reported similar stories but with a wider range of options for the timing of the snap election, including in December. The reports come as Abe has seen a recovery in public support after the figures plummeted in the past few months over an array of political troubles, including allegations of favouritism to a friend in a business deal that Abe strongly denies.

Public support for Abe had fallen to the lowest level of his premiership in July, but since has recovered gradually as Pyongyang raised global tensions with repeated missile and nuclear tests including missile launches over Japan. His popularity is now hovering around 40 percent. Experts say his resurgent popularity is thanks more to a weak and fragmented opposition than support for his policies.

Abe has called for a boost to the country’s defences and worked to strengthen the key security alliance with the US and defence cooperation with other like-minded countries. He has pushed a nationalist agenda since coming to office in December 2012, alongside a massive policy effort to end years of on-off deflation and rejuvenate the world’s third- largest economy.

“All the lower house members are beginning to think that (general elections) would come in the not too distant future,” the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)’s senior official Wataru Takeshita said Saturday in a speech in western Japanese city of Tokushima. Some lawmakers, including ruling party members, however, have warned about a potential political paralysis during the election campaign period amid lingering worries over North Korea.

LDP officials were not immediately available to confirm the reports on Sunday.

Udayavani is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel and stay updated with the latest news.

Top News

Passengers on board Air India flight exchange blows over armrest space

Man arrested for posing as Lokayukta official

‘Govt plotting fake encounter against C.T. Ravi’, alleges Union Minister Prahlad Joshi

15-year-old girl raped by school teacher in Rajasthan’s Sikar: Police

3 killed, 6 injured as truck crushes people sleeping on footpath in Pune

Ambedkar row: Congress to hold nationwide protest against Amit Shah’s remarks

Special trains announced from Bengaluru for Christmas and Kumbh Mela

Related Articles More

India & Kuwait elevate ties to strategic level; ink defence pact after PM Modi meets top Kuwaiti leaders

In Kuwait, PM Modi meets yoga practitioner, other influencers from Gulf country

PM Modi receives Kuwait’s highest honour

PM Modi in Kuwait meets translator, publisher of Mahabharata, Ramayana in Arabic

Indian manpower, skills will help build ‘New Kuwait’: PM Modi

MUST WATCH

Tulunadu Daivaradane

Feeding Birds with Creative Paddy Art!

Areca Nut

HOTEL SRI DURGA BHAVANA

Harish Poonja


Latest Additions

Geethartha Chinthane 133: Detachment with Responsibility

Passengers on board Air India flight exchange blows over armrest space

PM Modi pays tributes to Charan Singh

Car bonnet catches fire; no injuries

Man arrested for posing as Lokayukta official

Thanks for visiting Udayavani

You seem to have an Ad Blocker on.
To continue reading, please turn it off or whitelist Udayavani.