Japan's Abe Denies Plans For Snap Election: Report

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Sunday he had no intention of calling a snap election, Kyodo News reported. An earlier report from the Yomiuri Shimbun quoted government sources as saying Abe was considering dissolving the Diet and calling a fresh vote as a referendum on plans to again raise the national sales tax to shore up Japan's finances. However, Kyodo later quoted Abe as saying: "I'm not considering dissolving the [lower house of Parliament] at all." Abe's Liberal Democratic Party won the last election in December 2012, putting the next election at the end of 2016 if not sooner.