LDP, JIP Chiefs Likely to Give 1st Campaign Speeches Jointly Tues.

Tokyo, Jan. 24 (Jiji Press)–Leaders of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, are expected to deliver their first campaign speeches for the upcoming House of Representatives election jointly in Tokyo on Tuesday, according to informed sources. The day marks the start of the official campaign period for the Feb. 8 election for the lower chamber of the Diet, the country’s parliament. As the reason for dissolving the Lower House and calling a general election, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, also president of the LDP, cited a shift in her administration’s framework, from the former coalition with Komeito to the current partnership with the JIP, led by Hirofumi Yoshimura, who also serves as governor of Osaka Prefecture, western Japan. Takaichi and Yoshimura hope that the two standing side by side to appeal for support will help create a situation where voters pass judgment on the new LDP-JIP coalition, the sources said. A potential site for the joint speeches is the capital’s Akihabara district, an area previously often used by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for giving speeches for national elections. It was customary for the LDP president to deliver the first campaign speech in the northeastern Japan prefecture of Fukushima, affected by the March 2011 major earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent nuclear accident at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant. In last year’s election for the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, then Prime Minister and LDP President Shigeru Ishiba picked the western city of Kobe for his first speech due to his attendance at a Japan Day ceremony at the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]