Japan Press Weekly

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2013 October 16 - 22 [JCP]

JCP candidate gets 60% of votes in town assembly by-election

In the October 20 by-election in the Minakami Town Assembly, Gunma Prefecture, a Japanese Communist Party candidate beat a conservative rival by nearly 1,000 votes.

JCP candidate Hayashi Nobuyuki obtained 2,609 votes or 60.8% of the total poll. It amounts to three times the number of votes the JCP received in the town in the Upper House proportional representation election in July.

The JCP increased the number of seats in the town assembly from one to two, gaining the right to submit bills.

Hayashi, 64, during the election campaign pledged to make use of 530 million yen of the town’s budget to reduce the National Health Insurance tax by 20,000 yen per household and to lower the price of the town’s specified garbage bags which is six times the cost of equivalent bags used in a neighboring city.