Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will hold a news conference on Monday (Oct 23) afternoon, a day after his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) swept to a comfortable victory in the election. On Sunday night, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to deal firmly with North Korea and go ahead with a sales tax hike. These formed the key thrusts of a snap election Abe called 14 months ahead of time, as he sought to consolidate power after a bruising year of scandals. Even now, media surveys show that more Japanese disapprove of Mr Abe rather than support him as prime minister. As Fumio Kishida, the LDP’s policy chief who has ambitions to be prime minister, put it on Sunday night: “In politics, anything beyond one step ahead is darkness.”

Source: The Nation Bangkok October 23, 2017 05:37 UTC