election

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

JCP candidate wins Hokkaido by-election

Japanese Communist Party candidate Maekawa Kazuo won in the Hokkaido Prefectural Assembly by-election in the Hakodate city district (2 seats) on January 29, defeating two Liberal Democratic Party candidates and one conservative. The other winner was a Democratic Party candidate.

From the 2005 House of Representatives proportional representation election, the number of votes for the JCP increased by 817 to 13,454, while the DPJ received 22,441, down 34,140.

The election result shocked conservative figures of the city's political and business circles. A local paper reported it with the headline, "Three conservative candidates suffer upset losses."

Calling for a "smaller Hokkaido government," Governor Takahashi Harumi has promoted a series of cutbacks in the prefecture's educational and medical welfare programs, a Hokkaido version of Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro's "structural reform" policy.

In Hakodate City, the shortage of job opportunities is serious and life is growing harder.

With such a negative trend, long-time LDP voters are turning to the JCP candidate.

A small-business owner said, "I've never supported the JCP before, but I can no longer put up with a further increase in taxes." He asked his 40 employees to vote for the JCP.

Another owner, who has long backed an incumbent LDP candidate, also said, "It may be the JCP that will reflect our opinions in the prefectural administration."
- Akahata, January 31, 2006