With the second batch of unified local elections approaching, unopposed candidates have already been elected for mayor in 27 cities, including two prefectural capitals, or about 30 percent of all the mayoral elections.
Official campaigning for the latter half of the unified elections officially started Sunday. Mayoral races for 86 cities, except designated cities, will be held next Sunday, along with city assembly elections in 294 cities. A total of 6,726 members will be elected in the city assembly polls.
In Tokyo, elections for 11 ward mayoral elections and 20 ward assembly elections -- in which 785 assembly members will be chosen -- will be held on the same day.
Among the 86 mayoral elections, candidates were running unopposed in 27 cities, or 31.4 percent. Of the mayoral elections being held in five prefectural capitals, Tsu and Takamatsu had candidates running uncontested.
In contrast, the Nagasaki mayoral election is hotly contested, with four candidates running, including the incumbent mayor.
In Mito and Oita, the mayoral elections are one-on-one fights between incumbent mayors and candidates backed by the Japanese Communist Party.
Candidates were unopposed in city assembly elections in 11 cities, including Utashinai, Hokkaido.
Among the total number of city assembly seats, 182 candidates, or 2.7 percent, were unopposed, which is fewer than the number in the previous latter-half unified local elections in 2015.
The rate of female candidates is 14.9 percent for mayoral elections, and 17.3 percent for city assembly races, both record highs.
Female candidates are running in the assembly election in Tarumizu, Kagoshima Prefecture, where there have been no female assembly members since the city was established in 1958. A total of 17 candidates, including two women, are running for 14 seats in the assembly.
The candidates are the first to seek election to the assembly election in 20 years.
"I'd like to bring a new breeze from the perspective of women," one of the female candidates said during a street campaign speech.
According to a city official of the electoral management committee, there was a female candidate for an assembly seat in at least three past elections -- in 1963, 1967 and 1999 -- but all were defeated.
In the upcoming election, the two women are backed by a group of supporters consisting of female assembly members who are trying to increase female assemble members in Kagoshima Prefecture.
"There's a feeling in this region that women should stay in the background. I thought that way too, but now I think maybe it's a good chance to spur the assembly," said a 87-year-old man from the city after hearing the campaign speech of one of the two female candidates.
Since the 2003 elections for seats up for grabs, there has been no female representation in Hanyu, Saitama Prefecture. In the upcoming unified local election, one female newcomer is running for one of the 14 seats in the city's assembly.
"There have only been male members in the city assembly, so I thought that's the way things are," a 75-year-old female part-time worker in the city said.
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