The ruling and opposition parties dove into preparations for the upcoming House of Representatives election Friday, the day after the lower house was dissolved.
The general election will be held on Oct. 31 with official campaigning to start Tuesday. This means there will only be 17 days from the dissolution of the lower house to the vote, the shortest such period since the end of World War II.
The election battle is heating up between the ruling camp, which seeks to keep the coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito in power, and the opposition side, which is calling for a change of government.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is also LDP president, entered the Prime Minister's Office at about 8:40 a.m. Friday. He attended a meeting of the Reconstruction Promotion Council, where he said, "The Kishida Cabinet's policy is to sincerely listen to the people's opinions and put them into practice."
Kishida also expressed his intention to visit Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, which were hit hard by the Great East Japan Earthquake, on Saturday and Sunday.
On Friday, Kishida attended a Cabinet meeting and performed other public duties before participating in a TV program. Arrangements are being made for him to canvass across the nation after official campaigning kicks off.
In place of the prime minister, who needs to prioritize his public duties, LDP executives took to the streets.
"In this general election, voters face the question of whether the opposition camp can form a government with the Japanese Communist Party dragged into it," Taro Kono, chairperson of the LDP Public Relations Headquarters, said in a street speech in Hino, Tokyo, on Friday morning.
"We must maintain a political system based on the values of freedom and democracy, the rule of law and fundamental human rights," Kono said.
The opposition parties have also stepped up their efforts to increase voter support.
"Let's change together the Japanese society hurt by the coronavirus pandemic and your daily lives, which have been increasingly squeezed during the nine years of Abenomics" economic policy by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Yukio Edano, leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said in a street speech in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, on the same day.
Regarding the distribution of wealth, JCP Chair Kazuo Shii posted a message on Twitter on Friday morning, saying, "It's necessary to cut the consumption tax rate by requiring large companies and the rich to pay their fair share."
Nobuyuki Baba, secretary general of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party), also made a street speech in Tachikawa, Tokyo, on Friday morning. "We'll aim to carry out reform, distribute the fruits of that reform and promote economic growth. We intend to introduce reforms that the LDP can't implement," Baba said.
Komeito, the Democratic Party for the People and others also geared up their preparations toward the start of official campaigning.
In the lower house election, 465 seats will be contested -- 289 in single-seat constituencies and 176 in the proportional representation system. Kishida has defined victory for the ruling parties as winning a majority in the chamber, which would constitute at least 233 seats.
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