Japan party leaders head into election battle

A day after the House of Representatives was dissolved, a month-long election battle kicked off yesterday with leaders and executives of both ruling and opposition parties taking to the streets.

Japan Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda called on people to let his ruling Democratic Party of Japan continue its policies, while leaders of the two main opposition parties, the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP) and New Komeito, made street speeches, aiming to regain power after three years and four months in the opposition camp.

Smaller parties are speeding up coordination to unite as a third political force in preparation for the Dec. 16 vote. The official campaign will start on December. 4.

On Saturday morning, Noda visited Tokyo Metropolitan Kogei High School in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo, where he watched students hammer metal plates in a workshop. He then joined them in making cell-phone straps.

The school said it received Noda's request to visit about two weeks ago through the Tokyo metropolitan board of education.

After the visit, Noda tried to draw media attention to the DPJ-led government's policy of free high school education.

"I'll continue to promote tuition fee waivers at public high schools as part of efforts to create an environment that will support young people as they pursue their dreams and keep them motivated," he told reporters.

Meanwhile, Noda criticised a rush by smaller parties to establish themselves as a third force. "Recently, an increasing number of political parties have joined hands or split," Noda said. "If they disregard their major differences and sacrifice what is most important to them just to unite, it will create an illicit union."

At a shopping district in Kumamoto, LDP President Shinzo Abe told local residents about the significance of the upcoming election: "This is a battle for us to restore Japan.

"After we called for economic measures aimed at lifting the nation out of deflation and the dissolution of the lower house was decided, the yen fell and stock prices rose. The markets are waiting for the Noda administration to depart and for the LDP to come back. We'll recapture power to lead Japan in the right direction with certainty."

Launching nationwide canvassing, New Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi addressed an audience in the rain outside the East Exit of JR Ikebukuro Station in Tokyo.

"Japan is on the verge of sinking. This is an election in which you will choose a political party fit to take the initiative in rebuilding Japan," Yamaguchi said. "Komeito has the ability to take on the task of Japan's future."

The main figure of the third force, Toru Hashimoto, leader of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), spent Saturday morning having pictures taken for election posters in Osaka with his party's prospective candidates in the general election. Later the same day, Hashimoto met with Shintaro Ishihara, coleader of Taiyo no To (The Sunrise Party).

Rebuffing criticism of "an illicit union," Ishin no Kai Secretary General Ichiro Matsui said on a YTV programme, "We're completely aware of what we're doing as a political group."