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TOKYO, Nov. 1-- As the leader of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Shinzo Abe was formally reelected as the country's prime minister on Wednesday while the realigning opposition forces continued calling for breaking the Abe dominance and further probing into a couple of cronyism scandals implicating the prime minister. Abe, who has been Japanese prime minister since December 2017, was reelected Wednesday by voting in both chambers of the Diet at a special parliamentary session, following the ruling LDP's sweeping victory in the Oct. 22 lower house election. At a press conference following the launch of Abe's new cabinet which saw the premier retaining all his ministers, Abe reiterated his commitment to addressing Japan's population aging and low birthrate, what he had previously termed as the biggest challenges facing Japan. He said that he would announce in early December an economic package worth 2 trillion yen (17.5 billion U.S. dollars) to bolster education and social welfare programs including free preschool education and day care services for children aged between three and five. As for his long-term goal of revising the pacifist Constitution, Abe said there is no time schedule yet, adding that he would like to work on building a consensus with opposition forces. As part of Abe's campaign pledge and the LDP's fundamental party platform, Abe has been pushing for the first-ever amendment to Japan's pacifist Constitution, aiming for the supreme charter to explicitly make reference to Japan's Self-Defense Forces (SDF). | 
