After weeks of wild speculation that 2017 may get off to a tumultuous start with a snap election in late January, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the nation on NHK on Dec. 16 that this won't happen.
As he put it: "At the moment, I have not the slightest intention of dissolving the Lower House."
In Nagata-cho, the nation's political epicenter, the prime minister has been known to publicly lie about snap elections. But this time around, he seems to mean what he said.