(14 Sep 2018) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was on Friday vying for his third re-election as the ruling party leader next week, extending his stay in power to work on his long-cherished ambition — to revise the country's war-renouncing constitution.
Abe reportedly has already secured about 70 percent of support from parliamentarians of the Liberal Democratic Party, and clinching the re-election would allow him up to three more years to work on a possible charter change.
He faced Shigeru Ishiba, a former defence minister, on Friday, in the only public debate before the Sept. 20 vote.
The 63 year-old Abe, prime minister since December 2012, could also become Japan's longest-serving leader with a historic third term.
During the debate, Abe also talked about his diplomacy and expressed his willingness to hold a meeting with North Korea's leader in an attempt to resolve the long stalled issue of Japanese citizens who were abducted in the 70's and 80's by North Korean agents.
Abe however admitted realising such meeting is not an easy task.
Abe also said the suggestions for the two nations to sign a much-anticipated peace treaty formally ending hostilities from World War II before the end of the year without resolving territorial disputes is a sign Russian President Vladimir Putin's "willingness" to push for normalisation of ties.
While Abe repeated Japan's stance that territorial disputes must be resolved before normalisation, he said the meetings he plan to have with Putin in November and December will become "very important".
A dispute over four Russian-held islands that Japan also claims has been keeping the countries from signing the peace treaty.
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