2013 Japanese House of Councillors election a number of issues. Shinzo Abe led the Liberal Democratic Party to victory in the December 2012 general election after several years in the opposition. In campaigning to win control of the House of Councillors, Abe sought to resolve the "twisted parliament" problem for the next three years. Just prior to the election, the U.S. dollar fell against the yen on expectations of more momentum for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's aggressive monetary easing to fight deflation and boost growth for the export-dominant economy of Japan. Abe's LDP and its coalition partner, the New Komeito party, were tipped to win a
Japan–Vietnam relations elements then shipped to Japan. The Official Developmental Assistance (ODA) pledged for 2011 by Japan reached 1.76 billion US dollars, which was four times larger than the donation from South Korea, Vietnam's second biggest donor, at 412 million. Moreover, Japan's 2012 committed amount of donation to Vietnam raised to 3 billion dollars. Bilateral cooperation on defense has been enhanced since the Haiyang Shiyou 981 incident in 2014, as both countries have experienced territorial issues with China. In a speech in May 2014, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe affirmed that Japan would provide Southeast Asian nations its "utmost support" in their South