More than 980 candidates are expected to vie for the 465 seats in the House of Representatives election, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun tally on Thursday. The number of candidates is likely to further increase as political parties are preparing to field more candidates.
The lower house election will take place on Oct. 31.
In the previous lower house election in 2017, there were 1,180 candidates.
For the 289 single-seat constituencies, more than 855 candidates are likely to stand in the upcoming election.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner Komeito will field their candidates in almost all single-seat constituencies, except for places where those who had to leave the LDP will run.
Parties cooperating with the largest opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, in this election are the Japanese Communist Party, the Democratic Party for the People, Reiwa Shinsengumi and the Social Democratic Party.
The CDPJ has so far picked 214 candidates to run in single-seat constituencies. There are now fewer than 80 such constituencies where these five opposition parties are competing with each other.
For the remaining 176 seats to be filled through the proportional representation system, 127 candidates are likely to run solely in this section of the race. With many other candidates planning to declare their candidacies for this section and the single-seat constituencies, over 760 candidates are expected to stand in the proportional section.
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