Japan PM Kan says won't call snap election
March 5, 2011 - 0:0
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said on Friday he has no plan to call a snap election to break a deadlock in parliament.
""I'm not thinking at all of dissolving the lower house,"" Kan told a parliamentary session.But he added that he will ""take action"" if he needed to choose among the options available to him under the Constitution, leaving room open to make such a decision in the future.
Kan, whose public support ratings have sunk to 20 percent, faces growing calls including from within his Democratic Party of Japan to resign and break a deadlock in a divided parliament where opposition parties are threatening to block bills to enact a workable budget.
Instead of yielding to such calls, Kan as premier has the option of dissolving the lower house and calling a snap election.
Failure to pass budget-related bills could cause a shutdown of parts of the government within months, similar to what happened in the United States in the 1990s, and increase the chance of more downgrades of Japan's debt rating.