Japan's Smaller Parties Seek Toehold in Tokyo Assembly as Campaigning Kicks Off
From left: Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People; Mari Kushibuchi, co-leader of Reiwa Shinsengumi; Shinji Ishimaru, head of the Path to Rebirth
With campaigning having started for the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election, some parties with no seats in the assembly took to aggressively fielding their candidates. They aim to win their first seats and build momentum for the House of Councillors election that will soon follow.
One such party is the Democratic Party for the People, which had a breakthrough in last year's House of Representatives election, where it quadrupled its number of seats. The party has put up 18 candidates for the Tokyo election, hoping to make up for the last race in 2021, when all four of its candidates lost. In some cases, it has coordinated on which districts to run its candidates with the Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites first group), a regional party for which Gov. Yuriko Koike serves as a special advisor. Calling for 'increased take-home pay of the people of Tokyo,' the party will focus on such policies as supporting households raising children.
'This is a fight to win our first seat in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. I want to come at this as a challenger,' said party leader Yuichiro Tamaki in his first speech for the campaign. 'We will make sure that what we have worked so hard to earn will, as much as possible, stay in our pockets.'
Meanwhile, Reiwa Shinsengumi put up a total of three candidates in Setagaya, Nerima and Suginami wards, each of which has six to eight seats, as the party looks to ensure that the candidates it does run make it into the assembly.
In its campaign pledges, Reiwa stresses the need for an 'aggressive fiscal policy' in Tokyo, as it does for national politics. The party aims to improve the lives of Tokyo residents by expanding rent subsidies and reviewing large-scale redevelopment projects.
'We'll strive to repair and improve infrastructure such as for the water supply, so that we may build a foundation for Tokyo residents to live with peace of mind,' said Mari Kushibuchi, the party's co-leader.
'We must make metropolitan politics more transparent,' she added, referring to how Liberal Democratic Party members in the assembly failed to report income from political fundraising parties. 'Let's show how intelligent voters are, and kick out the scandal-plagued assembly members in this Tokyo assembly election.'
Another political party, the Path to Rebirth, which was set up in January by Shinji Ishimaru, a former mayor of Akitakata, Hiroshima Prefecture, aims to 'clean out the career politicians.' The regional party is fielding 42 candidates.
In Tokyo's gubernatorial election last summer, Ishimaru was not backed by any political party, but he used social media to gain support from independents and finished in second place. He remains popular, with his party's call for candidates for the Tokyo assembly election drawing 1,128 applicants. He also drew attention when he broadcast the selection process for candidates live on YouTube.
The party is taking an unusual approach to this election. Its platform simply states that elected members will serve only two terms, or eight years in total. There are no party policies.
'Our party is neither a ruling nor an opposition party. Neither right nor left. Let us each take the right path. That's our concept,' Ishimaru said in his first speech for the campaign.
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