Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida gives a speech for a Liberal Democratic Party candidate in the Lower House by-election in the Chiba No. 5 district in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, on April 22. (Nobuo Fujiwara)

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party won four of the five Diet by-elections on April 23, but rising opposition party Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) clinched the fifth for its first seat in Wakayama Prefecture.

The LDP maintained three Lower House seats it had before the elections and gained an Upper House seat in Oita Prefecture, previously held by an opposition lawmaker.

The elections all turned out to be tight races, with the exception of the Lower House by-election for the Yamaguchi No. 4 district.

“We have been given more seats than we had,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the LDP president, told reporters on April 24. “I take it as voters spurring the LDP to carry through its policy priorities.”

The five by-elections were seen as an interim report card for the Kishida administration, which was inaugurated in October 2021. Kishida’s term as LDP president expires in September 2024.

In the Chiba No. 5 district of the Lower House, the LDP’s Arfiya Eri, 34, gained 50,578 votes, edging out Kentaro Yazaki, 55, of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, who received 45,635 votes.

“Money in politics” was a key election issue because the seat had been held by the LDP’s Kentaro Sonoura, who resigned over a violation of the Political Fund Control Law.

But voters critical of the government were apparently split among the opposition candidates. The Democratic Party for the People, Nippon Ishin and the Japanese Communist Party also fielded their own candidates.

In the Oita Upper House by-election, the LDP’s Aki Shirasaka, 56, clinched a one-on-one contest against the CDP’s Tadamoto Yoshida, 67, by a razor-thin margin of 341 votes.

Shirasaka gained 196,122 ballots, compared with Yoshida’s 195,781.

Nippon Ishin’s Yumi Hayashi, 41, won in the Wakayama No. 1 district of the Lower House with 61,720 votes, defeating the LDP’s Hirofumi Kado, 57, who received 55,657 votes, and other candidates.

The LDP emerged victorious in two Lower House by-elections in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

Nobuchiyo Kishi, 31, seized the Yamaguchi No. 2 district with 61,369 votes, beating Hideo Hiraoka, 69, who received 55,601 votes.

Shinji Yoshida, 38, scored a comfortable win in the Yamaguchi No. 4 district.

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