Japan's Abe to pledge something for all generations in snap election: source

[TOKYO] Pledges to spend on education and child care, stay tough on North Korea and revise the pacifist constitution are likely to be pillars of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's campaign in a snap election next month, government sources said on Tuesday.

Mr Abe is considering calling the lower house poll when the legislature convenes on Sept 28 to take advantage of his improved ratings and disarray in the opposition, ruling party and government sources have said.

The prime minister, whose ratings have recovered from below 30 per cent in July, is betting his ruling bloc can at a minimum retain a simple majority in the chamber and at best keep the two-thirds super-majority needed to achieve his long-held goal of revising the constitution to clarify the military's role.

Mr Abe wants to go ahead with a planned rise in the nation's sales tax to 10 per cent from 8 per cent and use some of the revenue to create a "social security system for all generations", which would invest in education while decreasing the proportion of sales tax revenue used to pay down government debt, the sources said.

Japan's social welfare system is weighted toward spending on the elderly, with people aged 65 and over accounting for a whopping 27.7 per cent of the population according to the latest government data.

"You can promise anything you want - make a nod toward a more equitable society, empowering women, work-life balance, welfare for all generations," said Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University Japan. "He's got a strategy that is going to win."

Using less tax revenue to pay down debt, however, would make it more difficult to achieve the government's target of returning to a primary budget surplus in fiscal 2020, which could in turn raise concerns about less rigid fiscal discipline.

"We have to maintain fiscal discipline, regardless," Finance Minister Taro Aso told reporters when asked about the reports.

Mr Abe has told reporters he will make a decision on the snap election after he returns from the United States on Sept 22.

Japan's opposition Democratic Party is struggling with single-digit support and a succession of defections. And while the nascent "Japan First" party, which boasts ties to popular Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, could be a viable challenger to Mr Abe's government, it has yet to draft a platform, pick candidates or formally register as a party.

That means Mr Abe's Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner, the Komeito, have a shot at retaining their two-thirds majority in the lower house, political analysts said.

However, some analysts believe Mr Abe's electoral base could be undermined by voter distaste over suspected cronyism scandals and concerns about a political vacuum forming amid heightened tensions over North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes.

"I don't dismiss the possibility of the voters giving Abe a nasty surprise," said Gerry Curtis, professor emeritus at Columbia University in New York.

reuters