Elections

Over 1,200 Plan to Run in General Election; Ruling Parties to Compete in Some Constituencies

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
The Diet Building in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, Japan.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:45 JST, January 24, 2026

Over 1,200 individuals intend to run in the House of Representatives election scheduled for Feb. 8 as of Friday, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun tally, with parties still working to name more candidates.

About 1,100 are preparing to run in the single-seat constituency segment, where 289 seats are being contested.

The ruling parties — the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Innovation Party — did not coordinate their candidates. Many are expected to clash in a number of constituencies. Meanwhile, each opposition party is actively selecting candidates, so the ruling parties will also need to contend with them.

Over 900 individuals plan to run in both the 176-seat proportional representation segment and the constituency segment, with 150 of them planning to run solely in the proportional representation segment.