Photo/Illutration Voters attend a rally by a candidate in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election on June 13. (Koichiro Yoshida)

Official campaigning for the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election with all 127 seats at stake started on June 13, with the most candidates running in more than a quarter-century.

With the rising cost of living weighing heavily on the voters, each party is pledging more  support for people’s daily lives.

All eyes will be on the results, as the assembly poll on June 22 comes a month ahead of the crucial Upper House election on July 20.

According to a tally by The Asahi Shimbun, a total of 290 people had registered their candidacies in all 42 electoral districts as of 11 a.m. on June 13, up from 271 in the previous election four years ago and the most since 1997.

Currently, the Liberal Democratic Party, which supports Governor Yuriko Koike, Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites First), for which Koike serves as a special adviser, and Komeito hold a majority with 64 seats in the assembly.

The focus is on whether these three parties will continue to maintain their majority or whether parties critical of the current metropolitan government will increase their number of seats.

The LDP has officially endorsed 42 candidates.

But because the LDP’s metropolitan chapter was rocked by a money scandal, the party did not officially endorse six former secretaries-generals.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the LDP president, told reporters on June 13, “The party headquarters will do its utmost, in cooperation with the metropolitan chapter, to ensure that all the candidates are elected.”

Tomin First no Kai has fielded 37 candidates, hoping to return to being the party with the largest number of members in the assembly. 

Takayuki Morimura, head of the party, attended a rally in Toshima Ward and said the party has worked together with Koike “like two wheels on a cart,” calling for support “to make Tokyo a better international city.”

The Japanese Communist Party, which is critical of the Koike administration, will field 24 candidates.

The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan has officially endorsed 20 candidates, focusing on criticism of the current metropolitan government.

Saisei no Michi (The Path to Rebirth), a regional political party established by Shinji Ishimaru, the former mayor of a city in Hiroshima Prefecture and the surprise runner-up in the 2024 Tokyo gubernatorial election, has put forward 42 candidates.

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