Abe says he will decide on snap election after US trip

Tokyo

JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he will decide on calling a snap election after he returns from a trip to the United States, confirming media reports that he was considering calling a vote more than a year early.

"I'll refrain from answering each and every question about a dissolution of Parliament, but I'd like to decide when I return to Japan," Mr Abe told reporters at Haneda airport before boarding a plane to New York, in comments broadcast by NHK.