Update | Abe promises to deal with North Korea ‘firmly’ after landslide win in Japan’s election
Opposition Party of Hope founder Yuriko Koike described the result as ‘very severe’ and said she will accept responsibility, while her right-hand man Masaru Wakasa appears to have lost his seat
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe swept to a resounding victory in a snap election Sunday and immediately vowed to “deal firmly” with threats from North Korea that dominated the campaign.
Abe’s conservative coalition won 312 seats in the 465-seat parliament, retaining a two-thirds super-majority that puts the nationalist premier on course to become Japan’s longest-serving leader.
The resounding election win is likely to stiffen Abe’s resolve to tackle North Korea’s nuclear threat, as the key US regional ally seeks to exert maximum pressure on Pyongyang after it fired two missiles over Japan in the space of a month.
“As I promised in the election, my imminent task is to firmly deal with North Korea,” Abe said. “For that, strong diplomacy is required.”
Abe was heading for a “landslide win”, the top-selling Yomiuri daily said on its website, as the premier’s gamble to hold a snap election appeared to be paying off. That was later confirmed.