Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will call a snap election early in the parliamentary session starting later this month, in a bid to shore up her leadership and secure a mandate for the new ruling coalition. Takaichi told officials from the ruling bloc that she will give more details of the dissolution on Jan. 19, according to Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Shunichi Suzuki and Hirofumi Yoshimura, co-leader of the Japan Innovation Party, the LDP's coalition partner. We spoke to Isabel Reynolds, Bloomberg's Tokyo Bureau Chief

Plus - Stocks started Thursday on a softer note after Wall Street gauges retreated as investors rotated out of richly valued technology stocks. We heard from Jason Liu, Head of APAC Equity & Derivative Strategy at BNP Paribas. He spoke to Bloomberg's Paul Allen and Avril Hong.