Rising opposition party Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) is again trying to expand its power beyond the Kansai region in the unified local elections, but its candidates are struggling to gain name recognition.

The party has set a goal of increasing its hold on local assembly seats to 600 across the country. Its main focus is in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures, where it fared well in recent national elections.

Ishin is striving to lose its “regional” label, but it has been an uphill battle getting its members known outside of its Kansai stronghold.

On April 2, an Ishin newcomer was delivering her campaign speech on a street in Soka, Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo.

Accompanying her was Kiyoshi Nakajo, a popular actor-turned Upper House lawmaker of Ishin, along with Kenta Aoshima, another high-profile party lawmaker who grew up in the city.

Ishin currently holds no seat in Saitama’s prefectural assembly. It didn’t even field a candidate in the last assembly election in 2019.

This time around, six Ishin rookie candidates are running in the prefectural assembly election, and seven others are vying to become members of the Saitama municipal assembly.

Two Ishin politicians lost in their single-seat races in Saitama Prefecture in the last Lower House election in 2021, but they won seats through the proportional representation system.

In the Upper House election in 2022, Ishin finished third on a proportional representation basis after the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.

“In local elections, we need different strategies from national elections, where we push the party first, rather than candidates,” said a campaigner from Ishin’s Saitama branch. “We need to make sure to pitch our lesser-known rookies under the brand of Ishin.”

That’s why popular lawmakers like Nakajo and Aoshima are busy traveling to constituencies to back the party’s political greenhorns.

“In prefectural elections, the popularity of individual candidates is no less important than the party brand,” said a Saitama prefectural assembly member from the LDP.

Another LDP candidate said Ishin’s push beyond Kansai cannot be ignored.

“In Saitama, Ishin doesn’t have the same momentum it has in the Kansai region, but the situation is volatile nonetheless,” the candidate said.

Ishin’s move is perhaps most threatening to the CDP.

“We will be affected most from (the rise of Ishin),” lamented a CDP candidate in Saitama Prefecture.

In Kanagawa Prefecture, south of the capital, a total of 60 Ishin members are running in the prefectural assembly election and the municipal assembly elections of three major cities: Yokohama, Kawasaki and Sagamihara.

The party has set a goal of winning 20 local seats. It currently has just two in the four assemblies.

Ishin’s most high-profile politician from Kanagawa Prefecture is former Governor Shigefumi Matsuzawa, who won an Upper House seat in 2022 by finishing second with more than 600,000 votes.

The party also secured eight proportional representation seats in the 2022 election, finishing second to the LDP.

“The upcoming local elections mark a new beginning for Ishin,” said Lower House member Ryuna Kanemura, who heads the Kanagawa branch of the party.

But a less-optimistic senior member of Ishin’s branch noted that “in 2022, people voted for the popular Matsuzawa,” rather than the party.

“One major challenge is how to get Matsuzawa supporters to also support me,” said a candidate running for the Kanagawa prefectural assembly.

The local elections will be held in 41 prefectures and 17 major cities on April 9.

Ishin is fielding 267 candidates, nearly quadruple its figure for the last unified local elections held in 2019.

Although many contenders are running for offices in the Kansai region, the party has put more candidates in the Tokyo metropolitan area as well as in Aichi Prefecture.

Nobuyuki Baba has pledged to resign as Ishin leader if the party misses the goal of securing 600 local seats, a 50 percent increase from its current number.

The LDP is fielding 1,641 candidates in the local elections, while 392 contenders are running on the CDP ticket.

The Japanese Communist Party has endorsed 354 candidates, while junior ruling coalition partner Komeito is backing 342.