By ISSEI SAKAKIBARA/ Staff Writer
March 22, 2023 at 19:00 JST
A bulletin board for gubernatorial campaign posters in Sapporo’s Shiroishi Ward (Jun Hasegawa)
Voters head to the polls in the coming weeks for local elections totaling 980 including those for nine prefectural governorships.
The rising cost of living, declining population and regional economies are key ballot-box issues expected to dominate the campaigns.
Voters will elect mayors for six major cities on April 9: Sapporo, Sagamihara, Shizuoka, Hamamatsu, Osaka and Hiroshima.
Nine governors and members of 41 prefectural assemblies and 17 major city assemblies will also be decided the same day.
But the campaign launch dates are different, with the starting pistol firing for mayoral races on March 26 while assembly elections begin March 31.
Gubernatorial campaigns kick off on March 23 in Hokkaido, Kanagawa, Fukui, Osaka, Nara, Tottori, Shimane, Tokushima and Oita prefectures.
In Hokkaido, the incumbent recommended by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito will be challenged by a newcomer endorsed by the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
The Nara branch of the LDP will field a political greenhorn to challenge the incumbent governor, who has long enjoyed support from the ruling party.
In Tokushima, two former LDP lawmakers will challenge the incumbent governor seeking his sixth term with support from the local branch of the ruling party.
Both gubernatorial and mayoral offices will be contested in Osaka, where LDP-backed candidates will face off against members of Osaka Ishin no Kai, a regional political party.
Both ruling and opposition camps support the incumbent governors in Kanagawa, Fukui, Tottori and Shimane prefectures, while two rookies will face off in Oita.
On April 23, mayoral and assembly elections will be held in Tokyo’s 23 wards as well as in smaller cities and towns across the country.
Campaigns start on April 16 in the capital and some cities, and on April 18 in smaller municipalities.
By-elections fall on April 23 for both chambers of the Diet, with campaigning for an Upper House seat beginning on April 6 in Oita Prefecture.
For the Lower House, candidates will hit the pavement on April 11 to campaign for two seats in Yamaguchi Prefecture, one in Chiba Prefecture and another in Wakayama Prefecture.
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