Photo/Illutration Oita voters listen to a campaign speech on April 6, when official campaigning began in the Upper House by-election. (Kengo Hiyoshi)

OITA—The Upper House by-election here pits a former opposition party leader against the owner of a drinking establishment in Tokyo’s ritzy Ginza district who describes herself as a champion for working women.

Official campaigning began on April 6, and the Oita by-election will be followed by Lower House by-elections in four districts whose official campaigns kick off on April 11.

All five races will be determined on April 23. They can be seen as a mid-term assessment of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s performance.

In Oita, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is backing Aki Shirasaka, 56, who was born in the prefecture but moved to Tokyo to attend Waseda University.

She worked at a Ginza bar when she was a student, and later opened her own establishment in the capital.

Her opponent is Tadatomo Yoshida, 67, who is backed by the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and supported by three other opposition parties.

Yoshida once headed the opposition Socialist Democratic Party, but he was unable to turn around the woeful performance of that party in national elections.

However, opposition party officials say the “Oita method” offers hope for victory in the Upper House by-election. In past elections, the opposition parties and the local branch of Rengo (Japanese Trade Union Confederation) have rallied behind a single candidate to take on the LDP contender.

The by-election was made necessary because Kiyoshi Adachi vacated the seat to run in the Oita gubernatorial election, which will be decided on April 9.

In 2019, Adachi won the Oita seat by besting the LDP candidate, a clear sign that the Oita method was working.

CDP leader Kenta Izumi appeared next to Yoshida on April 6 as campaigning began and described Oita as the most important district.

“Over the lost decade led by the LDP, the population has declined, and young people are leaving rural areas,” Izumi said in a speech. “Let us together change that politics.”

Speaking on behalf of Shirasaka on the same day was Hiroshige Seko, secretary-general of the LDP’s Upper House caucus. Kishida plans to campaign in Oita as well.

Shirasaka talked about the problems she faced trying to run a drinking establishment during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“I really struggled to raise children while also working,” she said. “I want to create an environment where women can work more easily.”

But LDP lawmakers admit that the Oita race is the most difficult for the party among the five by-elections.

One party official said Shirasaka was the challenger who had to make up ground against a former lawmaker who has some name recognition in the prefecture.

The LDP Oita branch sought out individuals willing to run in the by-election, and Shirasaka was chosen in a vote of local assembly and Diet members. But she did not receive a majority of the votes because some local politicians said they knew nothing about her.

While working in Tokyo, Shirasaka has publicized some of the appeal of Oita, including a popular local citrus fruit.

Given her decided disadvantage, LDP officials said a victory in Oita would be a clear sign that the voting public was behind the Kishida administration.

(This article was compiled from reports by Shohei Sasagawa, Haruna Shiromi, Tomoya Takaki, Ryuta Kuratomi and Masayuki Shiraishi.)

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