A total of 367 people are scheduled to run in the next House of Councillors election expected on July 21, with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner New Komeito party aiming to win 129 seats to secure a stable majority in the 242-seat upper house, a Kyodo News tally showed Tuesday. The LDP headed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and New Komeito, which together hold 59 upper house seats that will not be contested in the upcoming election, need to win 70 seats out of 121 seats up for grabs to ensure they have a stable majority.

The New Komeito party on Tuesday set long-term goals to revitalize the Japanese economy, including raising average salaries by 10 percent, in its key policy pledges for this summer's upper house election. The junior coalition partner of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party also proposed holding an anti-nuclear summit in 2015 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the elimination of nuclear weapons, while underscoring the need for improving Japan's relations with China and South Korea, strained over historical issues.

Africa will be the engine for growth over coming decades, Japan's premier said Monday, wrapping up a meeting that saw Tokyo pledge huge aid as it looks to match China's growing involvement. Shinzo Abe said the continent would be at the leading edge of economic expansion and Japan had to make a commitment in a way that would benefit both sides.

By Kaori Kaneko YOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe emphasized on Monday that deregulation is the priority for the nation's growth strategy and aimed to push forward his economic policies. Abe, speaking to reporters after the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) held in the city of Yokohama near Tokyo, said he would watch market movements closely but refrained from commenting on them.