CDP-Backed Candidates Seen Leading in All 3 Japan By-Elections

   Tokyo, April 22 (Jiji Press)--Candidates backed by the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan are in the lead ahead of three by-elections for the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the country's parliament, on Sunday, Jiji Press has learned.
   The ruling Liberal Democratic Party fielded its own candidate, Norimasa Nishikori, only in the by-election in the No. 1 constituency of Shimane Prefecture. For the remaining two elections--in Tokyo's No. 15 and Nagasaki Prefecture's No. 3 constituencies, the party gave up on running candidates of its own at a time when its intraparty factions are facing strong public criticisms over their long-exercised practice of creating slush funds.
   In the one-on-one race in Shimane, where the LDP has dominated Lower House seats, the CDP's former lawmaker Akiko Kamei is gaining larger support than Nishikori, a rookie aiming to succeed a seat vacated by the death of former Lower House Speaker Hiroyuki Hosoda of the LDP, in cooperation with the Japanese Communist Party.
   The Tokyo election is being fought by nine contestants. Among them, CDP rookie Natsumi Sakai is going slightly ahead of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party) candidate Yui Kanazawa and Hirotada Ototake, an independent favored by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, as well as two other rookies Genki Sudo and Akari Iiyama.
   The by-election follows the resignation of former state justice minister and LDP member Mito Kakizawa, who was convicted for buying votes in a mayoral election in the capital's Koto Ward.

(2024/04/22-23:07)

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