Campaigning Begins for Japan’s Feb. 8 Lower House Poll

Tokyo, Jan. 27 (Jiji Press)–The 12-day campaign period for the Feb. 8 election for Japan’s House of Representatives, the all-important lower chamber of the Diet, the country’s parliament, began Tuesday. This is the first general election since the formation of the coalition government between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its new partner, the Japan Innovation Party, effectively serving as a choice of government. Prime Minister and LDP President Sanae Takaichi views the election as a chance to gauge public confidence in the coalition. Key issues include measures against inflation, a proposed consumption tax cut and policies on foreigners. The ruling parties aim to maintain a majority in the 465-seat Lower House. When the Lower House was dissolved on Friday for the election, the ruling bloc held a total of 233 seats, a narrow majority. This is the first Lower House election since October 2024, when then Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was in power. More than 1,200 people are expected to file their candidacies in the election. Of the 465 seats, 289 are allocated to single-seat constituencies and 176 under the proportional representation system. In the previous 2024 race, 1,344 people, including 314 women, ran for office. The number of female candidates is expected to be around the same level this time. With two years and nine months remaining in Lower House members’ four-year terms, Takaichi dissolved the chamber to seek a public mandate for her administration. The election will take place 16 days after the dissolution, the shortest such period in Japan’s post-World War II history. Takaichi has said that she would step down if the ruling camp fails to maintain a majority in the Lower House. The LDP suffered consecutive losses in the previous Lower House election and the 2025 election for the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, when Komeito was its coalition partner. Opposition parties, including the Centrist Reform Alliance, newly formed by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Komeito, will vie for votes against the ruling bloc. The new party aims to secure the largest number of seats in the Lower House. Among other opposition parties, the Democratic Party for the People and Sanseito hope to win many seats, as they did in the previous Upper House election. Candidates will be fielded by the LDP, the Centrist Reform Alliance, the JIP, the DPFP, the Japanese Communist Party, Reiwa Shinsengumi, Sanseito, the Conservative Party of Japan, the Social Democratic Party, Team Mirai and a new party formed by former internal affairs minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi and former Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]