Campaign Period Begins for Upper House By-Election in Iwate

Jiji Press

17:18 JST, October 10, 2024

Tokyo (Jiji Press)—The official campaign period started on Thursday for a by-election in the Iwate prefectural constituency of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, Japan’s parliament.

The election will take place Oct. 27 following the resignation of Megumi Hirose as an Upper House member. Hirose, who also quit the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, was indicted without arrest in August for allegedly defrauding the government of money paid as salary of a publicly paid secretary.

The LDP has decided not to put up any candidate as it faces unabated criticism for money scandals, especially over slush funds at LDP factions. The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan plans to attack Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s administration in its campaign.

On Oct. 27, Japan will also have a general election for the House of Representatives, the all-important lower chamber of the Diet. The two elections will be the first national polls for Ishiba, who took office Oct. 1. The campaign period for the Lower House election will start Tuesday.

For the by-election, five people filed their candidacies, including Toshiya Yoshida, 48, fielded by small political party Sanseito, as well as corporate executive Yutaka Odata, 69, and former trading house employee Hironori Matsushima, 67.

The remaining two are the CDP’s candidate, Eiji Kidoguchi, 61, formerly elected from the Iwate constituency, and Ayumi Tanaka, a 53-year-old independent.

In the previous Upper House election in 2022, Kidoguchi was defeated by Hirose, who ran as the LDP’s candidate.