News in Pictures / Japan’s Party Leaders Visit Swing Districts as Lower House Election Nears; Police on High Alert After Attacks

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:15 JST, October 22, 2024

With election day approaching, leaders of the ruling and opposition parties crisscrossed the nation on Sunday seeking support, mainly in closely contested electoral districts. The 12-day official campaign period for the lower house election, set for Oct. 27, had already passed its halfway point on Monday.

Police were on high alert across the country following attacks on the Liberal Democratic Party’s headquarters and the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo on Saturday.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is also LDP president, toured Osaka and two other prefectures in the Kansai region to deliver speeches in support of Komeito candidates. Candidates for the LDP’s junior coalition partner are in close races with the Japan Innovation Party. Ishiba stood side by side with former Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi in Osaka and emphasized the unity of the two parties.

Komeito’s current leader, Keiichi Ishii, was in Saitama Prefecture on Sunday, touting measures against high prices. He also plans to tour the Kansai region during the second half of the campaign period.

Yoshihiko Noda, president of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, focused on touring various parts of Tokyo on Sunday. In Itabashi Ward, he criticized the LDP’s problems with money in politics and said, “Voters must penalize the LDP.”

JIP leader Nobuyuki Baba toured three prefectures in Shikoku. In Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, Baba stressed that the “situation in regional areas will not improve if we leave things to the LDP.”

Japanese Communist Party leader Tomoko Tamura visited three prefectures in the Tohoku region, and Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People, toured six prefectures in the Kinki region.