Upper house election: July 10, 2022

  

Japan had an upper-house (House of Councilors) election on July 10.

It was the second nationwide election under PM Fumio Kishida’s regime. Kishida took office in early October in 2021 and the lower-house election was held later in the month. 

There are many issues and challenges Japan is facing – international relations and security policies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, economic policies, Covid-19, support for people who have been hit by Covid, the policies to increase payment for workers, climate change and energy policies including nuclear polices and many others.

Discussions on such important (and heavy) issues have not held much in the election campaign period (from June 22 to July 9). One-way appeals by each party have been made everywhere in the country.

The upper house has 248 seats. Half of the seats are elected every 3 years. 148 seats (74 seats in every 3 years) are elected by constituencies and 100 (50 in every 3 years) are elected in the national proportional representation system.

 In Tokyo, more than 30 candidates ran for 6 seats this year.

 Their posters were on the public-built election- poster board. (see also the top photo)

There are more than 40 thousand polling stations throughout the country. This is one of them.

People looked at the posters before entering the polling station.

 Former PM Shizo Abe was assassinated on July 8 in Nara prefecture during his election campaign. It was the first assassination of former PM in Japan after the World War 2.

The ruling parties – LDP and its junior partner Komeito – had a big win in the election. It was the 8^th consecutive wins in the nationwide elections for the ruling parties since 2012.