The leaders of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, are expected to jointly deliver their first campaign speeches for the Feb. 8 Lower House election, in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Tuesday is the official start of campaigning for the election.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who concurrently serves as LDP president, has said that one of the key goals of the election is to secure a fresh mandate following the change in the LDP’s coalition partner from Komeito to the JIP, which is led by Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura.
Takaichi and Yoshimura hope that they can appeal to voters by delivering their speeches side by side and highlighting the LDP-JIP coalition’s promise, sources familiar with the situation said.
Tokyo’s Akihabara district, an area often used by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for giving speeches for national elections, is being considered as a potential site for the LDP-JIP addresses.
For years it had been customary for the LDP president to deliver the first campaign speech in Fukushima Prefecture, which was rocked by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and the ensuing nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
But, in last year’s Upper House election, LDP President and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba picked the city of Kobe for his first speech due to his attendance at a Japan Day ceremony for the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka.
