Japan's Upper house election is on July 21 and it will not be a double election (ie with the Lower house)
The Nikkei, however, report:
- Abe has decided to preserve the option of calling a snap election
- his most powerful political weapon
- keep lawmakers at bay as he pursues his long-held goal of revising the Constitution
Japan's parliamentary session ended on Wednesday.
Says the paper:
- Abe will use the remaining over two years in office to achieve constitutional revisions while taming party members who might otherwise view Abe as a lame-duck leader with the threat of a snap election.
- Abe's earliest opportunity to call a snap election for the lower house now comes around the end of this year
And adds;
- the decision will hinge on the state of the economy following Japan's consumption tax hike to 10% in October
---
Something else to watch surrounding the tax hike.
