THE candidate of the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), Akira Nagatsuma, spoke from the top of a gaisensha, a van adorned with banners and loudspeakers of the sort favoured by campaigning Japanese politicians. Later on, down the road, the hopeful from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Fumiaki Matsumoto, also addressed passers-by from atop a campaign vehicle, as an aide held an umbrella over his head. But Akihiro Araki, the candidate of the Party of Hope in Tokyo’s seventh district, is “driving around waving” rather than speaking, “because of the rain”, a press officer says.
That seems an apt metaphor for the rapidly diminishing expectations for the Party of Hope, a new national force founded with fanfare by Yuriko Koike, the governor of Tokyo, hours before the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, called a general election for October 22nd. Aiko Kida, a 39-year-old housewife who voted for Ms Koike as governor, says she would like to vote for the...Continue reading
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