TOKYO, Nov 16 (Reuters) – Japan is set to dissolve
parliament’s lower house on Friday for a Dec. 16 election that
is likely to return the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party
(LDP) to power with a conservative former prime minister at the
helm.

However few expect the poll, three years after a historic
victory swept the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) to power for
the first time, will fix a policy stalemate that has plagued the
economy as it struggles with an ageing population and security
challenges due to China’s rapid rise.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Five years after ending a brief tenure marked by nationalist rhetoric tempered with pragmatic diplomacy, scandals in his cabinet and a devastating election loss, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is poised for another shot at Japan’s top job.

That prospect is raising concerns that the 58-year-old grandson of a prime minister would worsen already chilly ties with China, while at home pressuring Japan’s central bank to take extraordinary steps such as negative interest rates to rescue the economy from recession, a policy prescription that on Thursday sent the yen tumbling.

TOKYO, Nov 15 (Reuters) – Five years after ending a brief
tenure marked by nationalist rhetoric tempered with pragmatic
diplomacy, scandals in his cabinet and a devastating election
loss, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is poised for another
shot at Japan’s top job.

That prospect is raising concerns that the 58-year-old
grandson of a prime minister would worsen already chilly ties
with China, while at home pressuring Japan’s central bank to
take extraordinary steps such as negative interest rates to
rescue the economy from recession, a policy prescription that on
Thursday sent the yen tumbling.

TOKYO, Nov 12 (Reuters) – Under growing opposition pressure
to keep a promise to call an election “soon”, Japanese Prime
Minister Yoshihiko Noda looks to be leaning toward calling a
vote as early as next month, after pledging backing for a
controversial U.S.-led free trade pact.

The unpopular Noda may be hoping to emulate charismatic
leader Junichiro Koizumi’s bold election gamble in 2005 and use
a call for a major economic reform to ease the bashing his
Democratic Party is expected to suffer at the hands of
disappointed voters.

TOKYO, Nov 2 (Reuters) – Japan looks poised to avoid falling
off its own version of a ‘fiscal cliff’ after the main
opposition party signalled it will no longer hold a critical
deficit financing bill hostage to its push for an early
election.

The government has warned that without the bill needed to
borrow nearly $480 billion and cover some 40 percent of budget
spending, it will run out of cash by the end of this month just
as the economy stands at risk of sliding into recession.

TOKYO (Reuters) – When Japan’s central government confirmed a media leak on July 7 that it was considering buying islands at the core of a feud with Beijing, the timing could hardly have been worse given the symbolism in China, where a 1937 incident on that date is seen as the start of Tokyo’s full-fledged invasion of the country.

“To China, it looked as if Japan had done this on purpose with evil intentions,” said a Japanese source familiar with Tokyo’s stance on the row, adding the timing was accidental.

BEIJING/TOKYO (Reuters) – Six Chinese surveillance ships briefly entered waters near disputed islands claimed by Tokyo and Beijing on Friday, raising tensions between Asia’s two biggest economies to their highest level since 2010.

Japan protested to China and urged that the situation not be allowed to escalate – an outcome neither side would welcome given the two countries’ tight economic links.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan is expected on Friday to propose abandoning nuclear power by the 2030s, a major shift from policy goals set before last year’s Fukushima disaster that aimed to increase the share of atomic energy to more than half of electricity supply.

But Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s unpopular government, which could face an election this year, also looks set to call in the meantime for the restart of reactors idled after the 2011 disaster if they are deemed safe by a new atomic regulator.

TOKYO, Sept 14 (Reuters) – Japan is expected on Friday to
propose abandoning nuclear power by the 2030s, a major shift
from policy goals set before last year’s Fukushima disaster that
aimed to increase the share of atomic energy to more than half
of electricity supply.

But Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s unpopular government,
which could face an election this year, also looks set to call
in the meantime for the restart of reactors idled after the 2011
disaster if they are deemed safe by a new atomic regulator.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Popular Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto formally launches a bid for national power on Wednesday with a new political party that critics say taps simmering nationalist sentiment just as Japan faces increasingly strained ties with China and South Korea.

That tension has been growing in recent weeks as Beijing and Seoul both clash with Tokyo over rival claims to islands in the region, disputes that trace back to lingering resentment over Japan’s wartime rule in the region.