Photo/Illutration Voters listen to a Lower House election campaign speech in Osaka Prefecture at the start of the campaign period on Oct. 15. (Kenta Sujino)

Campaigning kicked off on Oct. 15 for a Lower House election, focusing mainly on the fund-raising scandal that rocked the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, political reform and the higher cost of living.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is LDP president, set a goal of securing 233 seats between the LDP and its junior coalition partner, Komeito, in the Oct. 27 election, or a simple majority of the 465-seat chamber.

“We are entering this election campaign with deep reflection so that proceeds from fund-raising parties will never be underreported again,” Ishiba said in a speech in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, on Oct. 15.

When the Lower House was dissolved on Oct. 9, the LDP held 247 seats and Komeito occupied 32. The coalition total of 279 seats was 46 more than the simple majority.

The LDP is expected to field 342 candidates, including 34 involved in the scandal, while 50 are expected to run from Komeito.

Yoshihiko Noda, president of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said the top opposition party aims to win the most seats and push the governing coalition into a minority position.

“The fund-raising scandal is the major election issue,” Noda told reporters in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, on Oct. 14. “A change in government is the most important political reform.”

The CDP is calling for a ban on political donations from companies and organizations and abolishing policy activity expenses, which politicians receive from a political party but are not required to disclose how they were spent.

Noda repeated his criticism of the LDP over the unreported funds in an Oct. 15 speech in the western Tokyo city of Hachioji, the constituency of Koichi Hagiuda, one of the scandal-tainted ruling party politicians seeking re-election without an LDP endorsement. 

The CDP, which held 98 seats on Oct. 9, plans to field 237 candidates.

Opposition parties have largely failed to unify candidates in single-seat constituencies to counter the ruling coalition candidates one-on-one.

An Asahi Shimbun survey as of Oct. 14 showed: 164 candidates are expected from Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party); 236 from the Japanese Communist Party; 42 from the Democratic Party for the People; 35 from Reiwa Shinsengumi; 17 from the Social Democratic Party; and 94 from Sanseito.

By 11:15 a.m. on Oct. 15, 243 women registered their candidacies in single-seat constituencies alone, topping the postwar record of 229 female single-seat and proportional representation candidates in the 2009 Lower House election, according to figures compiled by The Asahi Shimbun.

In the areas of diplomacy and national security, election debates are expected over policies to deal with China’s military buildup as well as the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Ishiba’s proposal to revise the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement is likely to be another point of contention.

Voters will also assess political parties’ abilities to hold the reins of government on other issues, such as their policies to cushion the impact of higher prices and develop social security systems that are sustainable amid declining populations.

In the 50th Lower House election, 289 seats will be contested in single-seat constituencies, and the remaining 176 seats will be selected in the proportional representation portion.

The period of 18 days between the Lower House dissolution and the election is the second shortest after World War II. The campaigning lasts 12 days.

The election will be the first after 10 seats were added and 10 others were removed in electoral district revisions designed to reduce the vote-value disparity.

In accordance with those changes, the districting of 140 single-seat constituencies in 25 prefectures was reviewed.

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