TOKYO —
Official campaigning got under way Thursday for the closely contested July 11 House of Councillors election, with representatives of political parties taking to the streets along with aspirants who filed their candidacies.
It will be the first full-fledged contest since the Democratic Party of Japan ousted the Liberal Democratic Party in a House of Representatives election last August, and also the first since Prime Minister Naoto Kan took office earlier this month.
A total of 437 people as of 10:45 a.m. have showed up at election boards across Japan as candidates for the triennial poll in which half of the upper chamber’s 242 seats will be up for grabs with the fate of the DPJ-led ruling camp’s majority at stake.
They include 187 candidates on the lists for the poll’s proportional representation section submitted by all the 12 political parties and groups poised to vie for 48 seats. The remaining 250 will run in 47 prefecture-based constituencies, to which 73 seats in total are allocated.
Making his first stump speech for the race in Osaka, Kan said in front of an audience of more than 1,000 people, ‘‘What helped the economy to flounder is a wrong economic policy. I promise to rebuild the economy for sure and put Japan on a growth track.’‘
Kan also touched on the hot issue of a future consumption tax hike, saying, ‘‘I hate to talk about raising consumption and other taxes, but it could become like (debt crisis-hit) Greece in one or two years.’‘
‘‘Please understand that we will discuss the matter with other parties,’’ he said, but earned only scattered applause.
LDP President Sadakazu Tanigaki said in Kofu, ‘‘This is an election in which whether the LDP can be entrusted again will be tested as well as the rating of the DPJ-led government.’‘
‘‘We will have to stop the dole-out policy of the DPJ government for the sake of the next generation,’’ he said, also citing the example of the Greek sovereign debt crisis.
Attention is focused on whether Kan’s government can hold public support despite his willingness to discuss the potentially contentious issue of a hike in the 5 percent consumption tax. Public approval of the Cabinet rebounded to over 60 percent after Kan took office on June 8 but fell somewhat after he clarified his stance on the tax issue.
Even if the ruling bloc fails to retain a majority, it would not immediately affect the DPJ’s grip on power as it holds a comfortable majority in the more powerful House of Representatives, but such a result could impact Kan’s party leadership and prompt the DPJ to seek a broader alliance or otherwise face a policy deadlock.
Along with its coalition partner, the People’s New Party, the ruling camp needs to secure at least 56 of the 121 seats to be contested to keep a majority in the upper house.
Kan is aiming to at least maintain his party’s current 54 such seats, while Tanigaki has staked his status as LDP leader on the opposition camp blocking the ruling coalition from retaining its upper house majority. The LDP and other opposition parties need 66 seats to do so.
The opposition camp is poised to continue confronting the ruling bloc over money scandals and the controversial government plan to relocate a key U.S. military base within Okinawa Prefecture that forced Kan’s predecessor Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa to resign abruptly in early June.
Some new parties also hope to offer a third choice for voters discontented with both major parties.
Among those parties, Your Party is aiming to win at least 20 seats and the Sunrise Party of Japan at least seven, while among existing minor parties, New Komeito hopes to win at least 11 seats and the Japanese Communist Party at least six.
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