Powerful ruling party politician Koichi Hagiuda is fighting strong headwinds in the Lower House election due to his involvement in two scandals that left many voters angry and distrustful.

Hagiuda, 61, is seeking a seventh term in the Tokyo No. 24 district, which represents a big chunk of Hachioji, a city in western Tokyo long known as the “Hagiuda Empire.”

In the previous election in 2021, he scored a resounding victory with a margin of more than 100,000 votes against the runner-up.

But he is not expecting such an easy win this time around.

Hagiuda is among 12 Liberal Democratic Party politicians running in the Oct. 27 election without the party’s endorsement because of their roles in a fund-raising scandal that has rocked the party since last year.

A former chairman of the LDP’s Policy Research Council, he was suspended from party posts over his failure to report 27.28 million yen ($182,000) in proceeds from fund-raising functions.

Hagiuda has also come under withering criticism for his close ties to the Unification Church, which renamed itself the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

Shortly before official campaigning started for the 2022 Upper House election, he accompanied LDP hopeful Akiko Ikuina to a meeting at a Unification Church facility in Hachioji to seek support for her campaign.

As a senior LDP official, Hagiuda crisscrossed the country to canvass votes for candidates from the party in previous elections.

But now, running as an independent, he is concentrating his efforts on simply retaining his own seat.

“(Hagiuda) is taut and nervous,” said a source close to his campaign.

According to sources, Hagiuda is now making the rounds of morning assemblies at three to four small and midsize enterprises in Hachioji.

In the afternoon and evening, he addresses gatherings of industry associations or support organizations for city assembly members close to him.

Wherever he goes, Hagiuda apologizes for “causing anxieties” over the fund-raising scandal.

Hagiuda, who was a close ally of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is relying on his ties with the intra-party faction once led by the slain politician.

Abe’s widow, Akie, told an Oct. 16 gathering in tears that Hagiuda had her blessing to succeed her late husband.

Sanae Takaichi, the former minister in charge of economic security and another close ally of Abe, came to drum up support for Hagiuda the following day.

But criticism seems to follow him.

In a street speech on Oct. 19, Hagiuda said, “I never intentionally kept political funds off the books, spent them for private purposes or evaded taxes on them.”

One person in the audience jeered, “Don’t make excuses!”

At one point, Hagiuda’s opponents and supporters shouted at each other.

The LDP’s junior coalition partner Komeito, which has a significant presence in Hachioji, has also withheld its support for him.

A woman in her 80s, who belongs to Hagiuda’s support organization, said she felt embittered by his involvement in the fund-raising scandal.

“It is outrageous that he had kept nearly 30 million yen in his drawer,” she said.

The woman said she could not bring herself to vote for Hagiuda or anyone else because she did not trust opposition candidates.

Still, Hagiuda could benefit from a fractured opposition.

The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan is fielding Yoshifu Arita, 72, a journalist known for his insight into issues surrounding the Unification Church.

The Japanese Communist Party decided to refrain from putting up a candidate in the single-seat constituency and support Arita.

But Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) and the Democratic Party for the People both are contesting the election with their own candidates.

CDP President Yoshihiko Noda went to Hachioji to criticize the LDP in his first speech after official campaigning started on Oct. 15.

But one person in the audience angrily shouted that Noda should have made more determined efforts to unify opposition candidates to defeat Hagiuda.

An opposition source said, “It was a severe blow that opposition parties did not have time to come together,” referring to the short period between Shigeru Ishiba becoming prime minister on Oct. 1 and his decision to dissolve the Lower House on Oct. 9 for a snap election.

Two other candidates, one from Sanseito, are also running in the Tokyo No. 24 district.