Abe to keep putting "highest priority on economy" in 2017

ISE, Japan, Jan. 4 Kyodo - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday he will continue to place his highest priority on the economy this year, aiming to pull Japan out of the deflation that has dogged the country's economy for the past two decades. "Our top economic policy is the swift enactment of the budget for the next fiscal year," Abe said at a New Year press conference in Ise, central Japan, after visiting the Ise Grand Shrine in the city earlier in the day. "Our mission is to solidly grow the economy while advancing 'Abenomics,'" he said, adding, "We will continue to fire the three arrows" to beat deflation," referring to his administration's economic policy package of aggressive monetary easing, massive government spending and structural reforms. Abe said the next ordinary Diet session will convene Jan. 20 and will be aimed at "opening up (Japan's) future." While maintaining that he is "not thinking at all of dissolving" the House of Representatives for an election, Abe noted that 2017 is the Year of the Rooster in the Chinese zodiac, and such years "have frequently served as major political turning points." He cited 2005, in which former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dissolved the chamber over postal system reform, and 1993, in which the Liberal Democratic Party lost an election for the first time in the post-war era. Abe was first elected to the Diet the same year. Abe pointed out that former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato dissolved the lower house in 1969, another Year of the Rooster, after clinching a deal with the United States for the return of Okinawa. The island prefecture had been occupied following Japan's surrender in 1945, also a Year of the Rooster. Abe also addressed the issue of Emperor Akihito's apparent desire to abdicate, possible responses to which are being debated by a government panel. Hinting that his ruling party would try to seek common ground over the matter with the opposition parties, Abe said "politicians must demonstrate the decency not to turn the issue into political fodder." The 83-year-old emperor indicated in a video message broadcast nationwide in August last year that his advanced age could one day prevent him from fulfilling his duties as a symbol of the state. Abe's government is considering submitting a bill to parliament in late April that would enable the emperor to abdicate but apply only to him, while the main opposition Democratic Party has opposed the planned legislation, instead proposing a permanent change to enable the current and future emperors to abdicate. The advisory panel, set up in September, is currently studying how to alleviate the burden on the emperor, including the feasibility of abdication, and is expected to compile a report summarizing the key issues involved this month. An amendment to either the Constitution or the Imperial Household Law, or the formulation of special legislation, would be required to enable abdication. Abe also said his administration will proceed with "new nation-building" in 2017 as Japan marks the 70th anniversary of its post-World War II Constitution, a document he has long sought to revise. "Now is the time to look to the future, in anticipation of the next 70 years, and proceed with new nation-building," Abe said. Revising the war-renouncing Constitution, which was introduced while Japan was still under postwar occupation by the United States and has remained unaltered since, has been a long-standing goal both of Abe and the Liberal Democratic Party he leads. Gains by the LDP and likeminded lawmakers in last year's upper house election pushed them past a legal hurdle required to formally consider a constitutional amendment. Abe extended his Year of the Rooster metaphor to foreign affairs, saying he will continue to advance "proactive diplomacy, looking across the globe with a bird's-eye view, this year." Last month, Abe hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin for a summit in Japan. Informed sources have said Abe and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump may be planning a meeting in the United States at the end of this month, shortly after Trump's inauguration. Japan's largest opposition party also kicked off the year in Ise on Wednesday. Democratic Party leader Renho, who visited the Shinto shrine ahead of Abe, said she wants the party to emphasize its points of difference with the Abe administration this year. "Our views will differ greatly from Prime Minister Abe's this year, too, and I want the public to see that," Renho said. The Democratic Party and the smaller opposition Japanese Communist Party, Liberal Party and Social Democratic Party are expected to begin discussions before the end of the month to narrow down candidates and work out common policies eyeing the next lower house election, the timing of which is up to Abe alone. "There could well be a dissolution of the lower house and a general election this year, (so) we'll maintain and enhance our preparations for battle," Democratic Party Secretary General Yoshihiko Noda said at his party's New Year ceremony. Meanwhile in Okinawa, which hosts most of the U.S. military presence in Japan, the governor vowed to continue a standoff with the central government over the relocation of a U.S. air base within the island prefecture. Making his first comments of the year Wednesday, Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga pledged to "use every possible method available to the prefecture" to prevent the plan to move the U.S. Marine Corps' Air Station Futenma, located in the middle of a crowded residential area in Ginowan, to the less populated Henoko coastal area of Nago. The central government resumed stalled construction work at the Henoko site late last month after the Supreme Court ruled against Onaga's move in October 2015 to block land reclamation, which had been approved by his predecessor prior to his election in 2014. ==Kyodo