Photo/Illutration A candidate in the Osaka gubernatorial race speaks to voters on March 23. (Takuya Tanabe)

Official campaigning for nine gubernatorial elections kicked off on March 23, with much attention on the race in Osaka Prefecture, where incumbent Hirofumi Yoshimura faces five challengers.

Unlike four years ago, when the ruling Liberal Democratic Party fielded its own candidate in Osaka Prefecture, Yoshimura will not face a unified candidate out to stop his Osaka Ishin no Kai local party.

The campaign for the Osaka mayoral election will officially begin on March 26, and Osaka city voters will have a chance to vote in two elections.

Osaka Ishin no Kai has been dominant in such double elections in the past three races.

Four years ago, the other opposition parties offered their support to the LDP candidate for governor, but Yoshimura trounced him by more than 1 million votes.

In this year’s election, both the LDP and junior coalition partner Komeito as well as the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan are not endorsing any specific candidate.

There are divisions among LDP members in two other gubernatorial elections.

In Nara, incumbent Shogo Arai is going for his fifth term. In past elections, the LDP prefectural chapter has supported Arai, but Lower House member Sanae Takaichi, who heads the Nara LDP prefectural chapter, is backing Sho Hiraki.

In addition, Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) is seeking to expand its influence by electing its first governor outside of Osaka. The party is endorsing Makoto Yamashita, a former Ikoma mayor, in the Nara election. Nara is Osaka’s neighbor to the east.

There is even more confusion in Tokushima Prefecture on the main island of Shikoku. A three-way race has developed among conservative candidates all with past ties to the LDP.

In the election four years ago when Kamon Iizumi sought his fifth term, a former Tokushima prefectural assembly member came within about 36,000 votes of defeating Iizumi on a campaign critical of his 16 years in office.

LDP officials tried to persuade Iizumi to retire, but he refused, and the prefectural chapter is backing him again in the election.

LDP members critical of the multiterm governor were unable to settle on a single candidate. As a result, Toru Miki and Masazumi Gotoda resigned their Upper House and Lower House seats, respectively, to run against Iizumi.

In the next few days, campaigning will also start in six mayoral races in large cities, 41 prefectural assembly elections and 17 municipal assembly elections in large cities. Voting for all those elections will be held on April 9.

The second round of local elections will end with voting on April 23 for mayors and assemblies of smaller cities and other municipalities.

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