Japan PM says no plan to resign or call poll soon

JAPAN: Unpopular Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said on Tuesday he did not have the “luxury of time” to call a snap election for parliament’s powerful lower house, but instead wanted to work on urgent challenges.

“There are major challenges that require immediate response and for the time being, the political challenge is to work on these,” he said in an interview with news agencies ahead of next month’s G8 summit in northern Japan.

“We have not got the luxury of time to dissolve the lower house.”

Fukuda’s support ratings have declined on doubts about his ability to cope with a divided parliament, which has delayed legislation and blocked key appointments, including the government’s first two choices for Bank of Japan governor. Two media polls issued on Tuesday showed that more Japanese would vote for the main opposition party than the ruling party if a lower house election were held now.

But no election need be held until late next year. “We are working on very important challenges like social security and the pension system. There are important reforms being sought. We need to work on tax reform,” Fukuda said.

“There are various administrative issues that need to be resolved and we need to move to a low carbon society.” Tokyo, Tuesday, Reuters