Wednesday, July 11, 2007

The official campaign begins

Today is kôji, the day when candidates officially register with the Central Election Management Commission and prefectural commissions. It also means that campaigning can officially begin — candidates can actually ask voters for their voters.

Yomiuri reports
that the total number of registered candidates is 376 377, 121 of whom are incumbents.

Feel free to post your predictions in the comments section. Will the governing coalition eke by — and will the prime minister hold on, regardless of the results — or are the next seventeen days of campaigning mere prelude to Abe's gotterdammerung?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

One thing which I think is getting missed in all the ongoing hand-wringing is that the Upper House does not have the power --- It's the Lower House which counts.

So, win or lose, my bet is that Mr. Abe, or Mr. Aso, will continue to stand on the bridge of the good ship LDP/Komeito until a spot election for the Lower House is called in late-2008.

Cheers from Yokosuka.

Anonymous said...

Can someone tell me about the political system in Japan. I am based in India and new to Japanese politics, have started interest in Japan and its companies lately.