JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will postpone a planned tax increase and call a general election for December, a newspaper said yesterday, in an effort to lock in his grip on power before his voter ratings suffer a slide.

    Abe said Tuesday he had not decided on the timing of an election and his top government spokesman said yesterday that a decision on the national sales tax hike, which could derail a promised economic recovery, had yet to be made.

    But the conservative Sankei newspaper said Abe would delay the tax increase by a year and a half to April 2017 and call a snap election for parliament’s lower house.

    A government official close to the prime minister’s office told Reuters on Tuesday that Abe was likely to delay the tax hike. Major political parties have already begun gearing up for a possible election.

    No election need be called until 2016, but political insiders said Abe, whose support is relatively robust but falling, might seek to renew his mandate for another four years before taking unpopular steps such as restarting nuclear reactors and passing legislation to allow Japanese troops to fight abroad for the first time since World War II.

    Abe has argued that to achieve fiscal reform, Japan must end deflation and get the economy growing.

    He had made up his mind to delay the tax increase as third-quarter GDP is likely to be weak, the Sankei said, citing unidentified government and coalition officials. Abe would then take the issue to voters because the delay would exceed the current lower house term, said the conservative daily.

    (SD-Agencies)