Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, made the following remarks:
- Dissolving the parliament to resolve the national crisis.
- Determined to protect Japan by gaining people's trust.
- I will resign from office if I fail to win a majority in Lower house.
- I can't let the North Korean situation affect the election stance.
- There is no choice but strengthen pressure on North Korea by various means.
- We would like to use a small portion of the sales tax for repayment debt.
- It is time to face the greatest challenges, aging society.
- We will maintain the government's position in achieving the initial budget surplus.
Abe had ordered his government this morning to set new economic stimulus measures in a package of about 2 trillion yen (17.8 billion dollars) by the end of this year. Abe stressed during his meeting with the Higher Advisory Committee that the focus of the package is to support education, childcare costs and promote corporate investments to improve productivity.
Shinzo Abe is expected to announce early elections later in the day to capitalize on the disarray of the main opposition party, and the stimulus package could be a way to attract voters. Abe is betting that his party will keep the vast majority within parliament to achieve its long-term goal of revising the postwar pacifist constitution to clarify the role of the military.
A recent opinion poll showed that 44% of voters would give their votes to Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), while 8% would vote for the main opposition Democratic Party and 8% would vote for the new party set up by Tokyo's popular governor Yuriko Koike.
