Japanese PM to have 'deep discussions' on North Korea with Trump after election victory

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe 
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was returned to power with a mandate for his hardline stance on North Korea Credit:  Kim Kyung-Hoon /Reuters 

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe vowed on Monday to tackle North Korea’s nuclear threat with "decisive and strong diplomacy” after his conservative party won a landslide victory in a snap election.

Mr Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition partner won a comfortable majority of at least 312 out of 465 seats in the powerful lower house of parliament in Sunday’s election.

The results enabled the conservative coalition to retain its crucial two-thirds “super majority” which paves the way for Mr Abe to pursue his controversial goal of amending the pacifist post-war constitution.

Speaking after his electoral win, Mr Abe told reporters that he would have a “deep discussion” on North Korean policies with Donald Trump, the United States’ President, who is due to visit Japan early next month.

“I will pursue decisive and strong diplomacy to tackle North Korea’s missile, nuclear and abduction issues and put further pressure to get it to change its policy,” he said.

More than 100 million Japanese braved strong winds, heavy rains and widespread travel chaos from an approaching typhoon to vote in the snap election which Mr Abe called more than a year early.

Japanese voting during snap election
Ruling Liberal Democratic Partys newly elected lower house parliament member Takeaki Matsumoto celebrates his victory Credit:  Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images 

New opposition emerged in the form of the recently-created Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), which won 54 seats, while the high-profile Party of Hope (Kibo no To), founded by Yuriko Koike, the Tokyo Governor, shortly before the election, obtained 49 seats, according to NHK, the state broadcaster.

Despite his electoral successes, Mr Abe still faces the challenge of having to boost his popularity as a leader, with media exit polls showing that 51 per cent of Japanese do not trust him following a string of corruption scandals.

In addition to the North Korean situation, issues topping his post-election agenda will range from dealing with a rapidly shrinking and ageing population, to policies of Abenomics in efforts to revitalise the world's third largest economy. 

His most pressing issue, however, most likely remains his long-cherished but deeply divisive goal of reforming the pacifist constitution, in particular war-renouncing Article 9, with a view to redefining the exact role of the nation's Self-Defence Forces. 

"Mr Abe is trying to create a legacy," said Jesper Koll, head of WisdomTree Japan, the equities fund.

"His first legacy project was to get the economy out of deflation. "The second legacy is to change the constitution. You can debate whether he has a mandate but what will make or break him ... is the constitutional issue."

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