Photo/Illutration Lower House member Toshiaki Endo, chair of the Yamagata prefectural chapter of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, addresses a meeting of local LDP officials in Yamagata on April 9. (Daisuke Tsujioka)

YAMAGATA—The prefectural chapter of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is leaning toward supporting an opposition lawmaker in the Upper House election this summer, a move that could actually hurt the opposition bloc.

At a closed-door chapter meeting on April 9, Toshiaki Endo, a Lower House member who heads both the chapter and the LDP’s Election Strategy Committee, said senior officials have narrowed the possible candidates to three, according to sources.

Endo said the chapter should field its own candidate as a basic principle, but the Upper House candidate supported by the LDP will be chosen after “closely watching developments on the national level.”

At the meeting, Endo also praised the opposition Democratic Party for the People (DPP) for making the “extremely weighty decision” to support the LDP’s budget proposal in the Diet, hinting that the party could back Yasue Funayama, an Upper House incumbent of the DPP.

Although some officials of the prefectural chapter are insisting that the candidate be from the LDP, several factors are behind the prefectural chapter’s apparent reluctance to field its own contender.

In the Upper House election, only one seat will be contested to represent the entire constituency of Yamagata, a sparsely populated northern prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast.

That election setup will make it easier for opposition parties to band together behind one candidate to defeat an LDP candidate.

In the 2016 Upper House election, Funayama won in a landslide, gaining 120,000 more votes than her LDP rival.

In the Upper House election three years later, another candidate backed by opponents of the LDP ran successfully.

And the incumbent Yamagata prefectural governor was re-elected in 2021 by defeating a contender who was supported by the LDP and its junior coalition partner, Komeito.

Funayama appears to be a shoo-in for re-election in the summer, a senior LDP official said, citing party surveys.

Some officials within the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are leaning toward backing Funayama in the race, rather than struggling to find an LDP contender with a chance of winning.

“We will have no choice but to let her take the seat,” an official said.

Moves in the Diet may have also eased any LDP reluctance to support a DPP candidate.

The DPP allied with the LDP over the budget proposal and other policy issues.

The apparent alliance has drawn heavy fire from other opposition parties and may have upended plans for a united opposition front in the summer election.

In February, the Japanese Communist Party announced that it will field its own Upper House candidate in Yamagata Prefecture.

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