Photo/Illutration A voter casts a ballot in Nagasaki on April 28. (Ryutaro Ito)

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida suffered a heavy blow April 28 when his ruling Liberal Democratic Party was defeated in a by-election that had long been an LDP stronghold.

It was one of three by-elections being held, but the only one where the LDP put up a candidate, adding further salt to the wound.

Reeling from a damaging slush fund scandal involving party factions and their fund-raising parties, the LDP did not even bother to field candidates in the Nagasaki No. 3 district or the Tokyo No. 15 district.

LDP lawmakers in those two districts resigned because of scandals, one of which was connected with the accumulation of massive slush funds.

The LDP only ran a candidate in the Shimane No. 1 district. The prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast had long been an LDP bastion.

But the LDP candidate, Norimasa Nishikori, a former Finance Ministry official, was defeated by Akiko Kamei, running on the ticket of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.

The by-election was made necessary by the sudden death of Hiroyuki Hosoda, the former Lower House speaker. He headed the largest LDP faction, which also accumulated by far the most money through fund-raising parties.

Hosoda was also closely linked to the former Unification Church, but he never gave a clear answer about the relationship with the scandal-plagued group, now formally called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

CDP officials hammered away at the money scandal and said political reform would never get off the ground if the LDP was left in charge.

The LDP tried everything to eke out a win in Shimane, with Kishida himself making two separate visits, including a last-ditch one on April 27, a day before the voting.

The Nagasaki by-election was called to fill a vacancy left by Yaichi Tanigawa after he resigned over his receipt of large sums of money from the LDP faction led by Hosoda and after that, by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

In the by-election, CDP candidate Katsuhiko Yamada emerged victorious over Shoichiro Inoue of the opposition Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party).

The Tokyo by-election was called after Mito Kakizawa, at that time an LDP lawmaker, became involved in a vote-buying incident.

Nine candidates ran in the Tokyo by-election and the winner was Natsumi Sakai, also of the CDP, which ended up sweeping all three by-elections.

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