TOKYO, Nov. 21 -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed on Friday to boost economic growth in three years and to improve women's involvement in the society.

　　Abe made the remarks after dissolving the parliament's lower house earlier in the day in what he called a legitimate move to delay second sales tax hike by 18 months to April 2017.

　　The prime minister said the dissolution of the lower house was aimed at letting the voters to judge his economic policies dubbed "Abenomics," pledging that he will make sure that the economic benefits will be felt nationwide.

　　Abe said he will continue to step up efforts to boost women's involvement in works and social affairs. "We will stick to our goal of creating a society where women can shine," he told a televised press briefing.

　　The prime minister has made his cabinet as a test field for his "womenomics" by ushering five female ministers in a cabinet reshuffle in September, but two of them stepped down due to misuse of political funds in October and the other three worshipped the notorious war-linked Yasukuni Shrine, a move always angers Japan's neighboring countries.

　　Along with other nine bills, a priority bill for Abe's government to empower women, however, failed to pass during the Diet session ending on Nov. 30, according to local reports.

　　Abe said he will implement current social security reform plan despite the delay of the second tax hike. The tax change aims at boosting Japan's tax revenue to address snowballing social security costs brought by an aging society.

　　Meanwhile, Yukio Edano, secretary general of Japan's major opposition the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), slammed Abe's decision to dissolve the lower house, saying the "Abenomics" only helped the surge of Japan's stocks market, but left heavier burden on people's daily life and enlarged the gap between the rich and the poor.

　　Unpopular issues like the Special Secrecy Law, rights to collective self-defense and restart of nuclear power plants will be also focused in the upcoming election, according to Abe and the opposition camp that wants to stop Abe's "runaway policy."

　　Latest polls by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper said 62 percent of respondents opposed the lower house dissolution and 65 percent do not accept Abe's excuse -- to delay the sales tax hike -- to dissolve the chamber, compared to 18 percent that support the move and 25 percent accept the reason for dissolution.

　　About 37 percent said they will vote for the Abe's Liberal Democratic Party in the proportional representation, ranking top among Japan's political parties, followed by the DPJ with 13 percent, according to the poll.

　　Another poll by Japan's Kyodo News showed over 50 percent of respondents want to see a more balanced lower house between the ruling party or bloc and the opposition camp.