Japanese party leaders make final appeals to voters
Japanese party leaders made their final appeals to voters Saturday (February 7), the last day of the official campaign period for Sunday's House of Representatives election.
The general election for the all-important lower chamber of parliament is the first national election since the ruling Liberal Democratic Party formed a coalition with the Japan Innovation Party. It is also the first Lower House poll since October 2024.
Sunday's election takes place only 16 days after the dissolution of the Lower House, the shortest interval in the post-World War II period.
Key election issues were economic measures such as a consumption tax cut and policies on foreign nationals. The focus is on whether the ruling coalition will secure a majority of at least 233 seats.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, the LDP's president, aims to push ahead with her policies, such as what she calls "responsible" expansionary fiscal policy, by gaining a mandate from voters. She toured Tokyo on Saturday.
"I dissolved the Lower House, staking my fate as prime minister," she stressed in a stump speech.
"The Takaichi cabinet's challenge will be over" if the LDP loses the election, she also said.
Yoshihiko Noda, co-leader of the Centrist Reform Alliance, a new party of Lower House lawmakers from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Komeito, also stumped Tokyo. The new party hopes to be an axis to counter the conservative Takaichi administration.
"Centrist politics is needed so that we can keep walking on the path of a peaceful nation," he said. Noda criticised the LDP for fielding candidates involved in a slush fund scandal.
"We will realise what is really necessary even if we have a fight with the LDP," Fumitake Fujita, the JIP's co-head, said in a stump speech in Suita, Osaka Prefecture. "We won't allow the LDP to water down" promises in the agreement to form the ruling coalition, he added.
Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People, underlined his party's aim to increase take-home pay in a speech in front of Ikebukuro Station in Tokyo.
"We will be the most reliable opposition party," he emphasised. "We want to play a role in moving this country forward by seeking solutions, not confrontations."
Tomoko Tamura, head of the Japanese Communist Party, criticised the prime minister in Tokyo's Nerima Ward over diplomacy and security. "Let us build a country that can engage in peace diplomacy," she said.
"We will drag down the LDP," Taro Yamamoto, leader of Reiwa Shinsengumi, said in the southwestern city of Fukuoka, blaming the LDP for causing Japan's economic stagnation.
In the city of Saitama, near Tokyo, Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya said that policy measures taken by the government and the LDP over foreign nationals have been insufficient. "The LDP won't listen to the public if it wins the election," he warned.
Executives of the Tax Cuts Japan & Patriotic Alliance, the Conservative Party of Japan, the Social Democratic Party and Team Mirai made stump speeches in various areas.
In the election, 1,284 candidates vie for the chamber's 465 seats--289 constituency seats and 176 proportional representation seats.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
