Organized Campaign Wins

Traditional and organized campaign defeated unusual political coalition against current administration. A candidate raised by the leading coalition of Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, Yoshiaki Wada, overtook an independent figure supported by Democratic Party, Japan Communist Party and other opposite parties, Maki Ikeda, with small margin in the supplemental election of Hokkaido 5^th District of House of Representatives on Sunday. Both sides are still analyzing what impact the election will have on coming election of House of Councillors.

Wada is son-in-law of late Nobutaka Machimura, former Speaker of House of Representatives and former Minister of Foreign Affairs. Wada campaign stressed that he was legitimate successor of Machimura to secure former supporters in the district. Based on his career as a businessman with Mitsubishi Corporation, Wada appealed economic policies he would promote with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. On security policy that had been controversial, Wada kept the line drawn by current leading coalition. That stance was positively accepted by voters, which contained a number of personnel in Ground Self-defense Force in the district.

Ikeda focused on welfare policy, on which frustration against Abe administration had publicly been expressed. Quoting her experience of being abused in her childhood or raising kid as a single mother, Ikeda emphasized necessity for welfare policies to save suffered families and narrow the gap between the rich and the poor. It was a campaign strategy of appealing to independent voters.

However, voters’ turnout in the district was lower than the previous election, which meant that independent voters were not so interested in the race. Unusual cooperation between Democratic Party and Communist Party did not work as much as it could defeat leading coalition. Independent candidate is legally limited in disseminating posters or flyers compared to official candidate of registered parties. Because DP and JCP did not like supporting an official candidate each other, they had to choose independent candidate.

That may affect campaign strategy for the election of House of Councillors. While JCP has been considering turning down their candidate and support DP as much as they can, it may move to raising its own candidate in some electoral districts. The result of Hokkaido 5^th proved that coalition of opposite parties could work well in the circumstance of strong wing against current administration was blowing.