By-elections to pit DPJ, LDP candidates

Official campaigning kicked off Thursday for two Upper House by-elections to be held Oct. 25, the first Diet races since the launch of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's administration.

Gaining momentum: Supporters cheer Democratic Party of Japan candidates running for an Upper House by-election in Yokohama's Naka Ward on Thursday. KYODO PHOTO

His Democratic Party of Japan will be squaring off against the Liberal Democratic Party in Kanagawa and Shizuoka prefectures over two seats in the 242-member Upper House, where the DPJ coalition with the Social Democratic Party and Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party) holds a small majority.

The stakes are high because if the DPJ wins both by-elections, the party, together with others forming a parliamentary group in the chamber, will reach just one seat shy of a majority on its own.

Obtaining a majority there would help the DPJ run a stable government because it already has a nearly two-thirds majority in the more powerful Lower House.

The outcomes of the by-elections might foretell whether the DPJ will be able to win a majority on its own in the Upper House in the big election next summer, when half the chamber's seats will be up for grabs.

"By making a good start with your support, I'm convinced that we can show what we mean by 'politics for the people' during the extraordinary session of the Diet," Hatoyama said Thursday at an annual meeting of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), the DPJ's main backer.

The by-elections will be the first campaign test for LDP President Sadakazu Tanigaki. He won the party's presidency late last month following the resignation of former Prime Minister Taro Aso.

The LDP is still smarting from its crushing defeat in the Lower House election, and with its current leadership still finding its feet, the party is widely expected to face an uphill battle in both prefectures.

"I'm very sorry that we got defeated even though we had your warm support in the last election," Tanigaki said at a meeting of the Central Union of the Agricultural Cooperatives. "I will revitalize the party by giving it my utmost efforts and pave the way for us to take back power."

The Kanagawa by-election was made necessary when Keiichiro Asao, a former DPJ member, gave up the seat to run successfully in the Aug. 30 Lower House election. The race in Shizuoka is being held because Yukiko Sakamoto of the LDP quit to make an unsuccessful run for governor last summer.

The DPJ candidate in Kanagawa is economist Yoichi Kaneko, 47, while the LDP is running Hiroko Tsunoda, 42, a former member of the Yokohama Municipal Assembly.

In Shizuoka, the DPJ has fielded Hirokazu Tsuchida, 59, a doctor, to run against the LDP's Shigeki Iwai, 41, a college lecturer.

New Komeito, which spent the last decade in the now-ousted LDP ruling bloc, isn't planning to endorse either LDP candidate in the by-elections.

The DPJ has 108 members in the Upper House, excluding Satsuki Eda, who temporarily left the party while he is president of the chamber, as is the traditional practice. Including lawmakers from Kokumin Shinto, New Party Nippon and some nonaffiliated lawmakers, the DPJ controls 118 seats. If the two seats up for grabs go to the DPJ, it will have 120, just one short of a majority excluding the speaker.

If the DPJ can secure support from one more independent, it will then be able to enact laws without the support of the SDP, with which the DPJ has had policy differences, particularly over matters concerning diplomacy and national security.

SENDAI (Kyodo) Official campaigning for the Oct. 25 Miyagi gubernatorial election began Thursday, with three people filing candidacies.

The three are incumbent Gov. Yoshihiro Murai, 49, Yasuo Endo, 62, a former senior U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization official, and Miyuki Amashita, 53, a senior medical association staffer.

Endo is backed by the Democratic Party of Japan, Social Democratic Party and Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party) — the three parties forming the ruling coalition. The Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito are supporting Murai's bid.

Amashita is backed by the Japanese Communist Party.