adminincreasing the pressure on the central bank for quick action to pull the country out of recession and deflation.
A day after voters returned the Liberal Democratic Party to power, ending three years of political exile, Mr Abe stuck yesterday to his election campaign theme of economic revival, while treading carefully on relations with Japan’s Asian neighbours, who view the incoming leader as a provocative nationalist.
Turning up the heat on the Bank of Japan to take much more aggressive measures to reflate the world’s third-biggest economy, Mr Abe said during a news conference that he expects the bank, at a two-day policy meeting ending Thursday, to “reach an appropriate decision, accepting the results” of the election.
Mr Abe, who said he would form a Cabinet on December 26, vowed a “large-scale” budget for government spending to help revive an economy heading toward a third straight quarter of contraction and to end decades of deflation.
The budget will take into account the gap between oversupply and weak demand in the economy, which the government says is US$180 billion.
The LDP and ally New Komeito together took 325 of the 480 seats in the Lower House of Parliament, more than the two-thirds supermajority needed to override decisions in the upper chamber.
The economy dominated the election that brought back the LDP, which had governed almost uninterrupted for half a century before being ousted by the Democratic Party of Japan three years ago in a landslide that mirrored Sunday’s vote. — The Wall Street Journal.
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