Campaigning begins in Japan snap polls

Campaigning has officially kicked off in Japan ahead of snap parliamentary elections in mid-December.

More than 1,180 candidates nationwide are vying for 475 legislative seats in the lower house of the country’s parliament.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has described the December 14 elections as a referendum on his economic policies.

“We are determined to win. I promise to make Japan a country that can shine again at the center of the world,” Abe told hundreds of voters in the northern port of Soma on Tuesday.

The 60-year-old premier dissolved the lower house of Japan’s parliament on November 21 and called for snap elections two years ahead of schedule.

The decision came just three days after Abe announced plans to call for early elections and to delay a rise of sales taxes to 10 percent set for October 2015 by at least 18 months.

Abe seeks to gather public support for the so-called “Abenomics,” his economic ideas to kick-start Japan’s sluggish growth through reforms.

The Japanese prime minister also plans to tackle unpopular policies next year, including expanding Japan’s military role and restarting the country’s nuclear reactors, which went offline after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

Abe was elected two years ago on a platform of reviving the economy, but he has been unsuccessful so far.

Japan’s economy, the world’s third largest, slipped back into recession for a second consecutive quarter, according to data released on November 17. Japan had come out of its last recession in 2012.