The 26th House of Councilors election was announced on the 22nd, and 545 people, including constituencies and proportional representations, ran for 18 days for the polling day on the 10th of next month.



Tatsuya Tokuhashi, a reporter from the political department, explains what the election will be, the focus, and how the ruling and opposition parties will face the election contest.

<What is the question of the election?

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It can be said that this is an election in which the course of Japan is questioned.



The House of Councilors election is also called the "interim test" of the administration, and the evaluation of the Kishida administration, which was launched last fall, will be questioned.



However, in the last six months or so, in addition to the prolonged infection with the new corona, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and other events that have shaken the world have occurred.



Many political issues have emerged, from those that are directly linked to the lifestyle of rising prices and the depreciation of the yen to those that are related to the state of the country, such as security and the constitution.



It is necessary to show the way how each party is trying to tackle each issue.

<What is the focus of the seats?

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There are some notable numbers.

First is "56".



This is the number of seats required for both the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito Party to maintain a majority of seats in the House of Councilors as a whole.



The capacity will increase in this election, and the majority of the House of Councilors will be 125.



There are 69 non-elected seats for both parties, so this time we need 56 seats.



It will be possible to achieve this by reducing the number of seats by 10 or more from before the election, but if this is interrupted, the ruling party alone will not be able to pass bills in the House of Councilors.



It is expected that the administration will be greatly affected, so the ruling party wants to win this seat at all costs.



On the other hand, Izumi, the representative of the Constitutional Democratic Party, the first party, expressed his intention to win more than 63 seats, which is the majority of the re-elected seats in the opposition as a whole.



On the other hand, the Nippon Ishin no Kai wants to use this election as a stepping stone to become the first opposition party, and aims to get the most votes from the opposition party, surpassing the Constitutional Democratic Party as a proportional representative.



The difference in seats between the two parties is 30 in the House of Councilors as a whole, but what happens to this difference may affect the future battle for leadership within the opposition.

And another noteworthy number is "83".



This is a number related to constitutional amendment, and the four parties, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito Party, the Nippon Ishin no Kai, and the Democratic Party for the People, who are willing to amend the constitution, will secure two-thirds of the seats of the House of Councilors necessary for proposing the amendment. The number of seats required for.



Prime Minister Kishida says that the point is that the contents can be matched for this two-thirds number, but first of all, whether or not the positive forces reach this number of seats will determine the future of the debate. I think it will be.

<How will the ruling and opposition parties face the election contest?

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The ruling party has also appealed that it will take further measures while saying that the rate of price increase has been suppressed compared to Europe and the United States by the government's response so far, considering that rising prices have become an issue. I want to.



In addition, the policy is to emphasize the achievements of the government in terms of diplomacy and appeal for the need to stabilize politics, and to expand support centered on the "one-person district" that is said to hold the key to victory and defeat. increase.



However, there is a temporary difficulty in election cooperation between the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito Party, so it is questioned whether the cooperation will work.



On the other hand, the opposition party has been criticizing that the government's measures against rising prices are inadequate and cannot protect the lives of the people, and it is a policy to appeal the effectiveness of each policy.



Then, we would like to drive the ruling party into a majority of the re-elected seats and expand its power toward a reversal offensive.



However, while the opposition candidates were unified in all "one-person districts" last time and two times before, this time it was only 11 out of 32.



It will be interesting to see how this leads to election results.