Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's snap election gamble is getting risky. By calling the Oct. 22 vote and dissolving the lower house, he appeared poised to catch the divided opposition on the back foot. But things have changed and the biggest challenger to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the newly formed conservative Hope Party, gained a major advantage Sept. 28. On the same day that Abe dissolved the lower house, the main opposition Democratic Party declared that it would not run any candidates in the upcoming polls and instead urged its 88 lawmakers to either join the Hope Party or run as independents....
