Japan to turn up heat against North Korea as Abe gains new mandate with election win

ADS 300px;height:250px

JAPANESE leader Shinzo Abe is set for a thumping re-election victory after vowing to take a tough stance on North Korea. Exit polls suggest the Prime Minister's ruling coalition is heading for a resounding win in today's crunch snap election. Mr Abe's Liberal Democratic Party-led (LDP) bloc is expected to win 311 seats, according to a forecast by TBS television. The result would see his coalition keep its two-thirds "super majority" in Japan's 465-member lower house.

Mr Abe called the vote last month, saying he needed a new mandate to tackle a "national crisis" from North Korea's nuclear threats. He has backed Donald Trump's tough stance towards Pyongyang that all options, including military action, are on the table. US President Mr Trump is to visit Japan on November 5 to reaffirm the leaders' tight ties. A hefty win also raises the likelihood that Mr Abe, who took office in December 2012, will become Japan's longest-serving PM. It also means his "Abenomics" growth strategy centred on the hyper-easy monetary policy will likely continue.

The 63-year-old has already led the LDP and its partner, the Komeito, to four landslide wins since he took the helm of the party. But turnout in today's election has been low and the LDP has typically won with about 25 percent of eligible votes. The snap election was called amid confusion in the opposition camp and an uptick in his approval ratings.

Abe's move had seemed risky after Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, long tipped to become Japan's first female PM, launched her own party. Her conservative Party of Hope absorbed a big chunk of the failed main opposition Democratic Party. But voter enthusiasm soon waned despite its calls for popular policies such as an exit from nuclear power. Ms Koike did not run for a lower house seat herself and failed to say who her party would back for PM. She told NHK public TV: "It's an extremely tough election result. "We had sought to put policies first. But we ended up with a very tough outcome, so I deeply apologise for that." Several experts noted the ruling bloc's win was less a victory for the LDP than a defeat for a divided opposition. Zentaro Kamei, a senior research fellow at think tank PHP Institute, said: "Simply put, this was the self-destruction of the opposition."

Shinjiro Koizumi, the LDP lawmaker son of popular former PM Junichiro Koizumi, warned against LDP complacency. He said: "It's not just that our party has become arrogant and complacent. People are also getting increasingly fed up with us."