Tokyo Assembly Election Candidates Make Last Appeals to Voters on Final Campaign Day in Sweltering Heat
A male candidate standing on a sidewalk in Shinjuku Ward wore a white, wide-brimmed hat and vest fitted with cooling fans. He urged the crowd to drink water to stave off heatstroke and vowed in a hoarse voice to 'fight to the very end.'
Each party has framed the Tokyo assembly race as a dress rehearsal for the upcoming House of Councillors election, fielding campaign operations as robust as those seen in national elections. Observers are also watching to see whether chronically low voter turnout will improve.
Turnout in Tokyo assembly elections has trended downward since peaking at 70.13% in 1959, hovering from 40% to less than 60% since the 2000s. The record low turnout — 40.8% — was logged in the 1997 race. The previous election in 2021 saw the second-lowest voter turnout at 42.39%, a decline attributed in part to voters staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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