Seven first-time candidates on Tuesday filed to run in by-elections to be held in Miyagi and Shiga prefectures on Oct. 28 for two open seats in the House of Representatives.
The election for the Miyagi No. 4 constituency will be held to fill the seat of the late Lower House Speaker Soichiro Ito.
The Shiga No. 2 constituency seat opened due to the death of Akira Konishi, a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
The four candidates running in Miyagi are Ito's 48-year-old son, Shintaro Ito, on an LDP ticket; former Miyagi governor Shuntaro Honma, 61, as an independent; Takashi Yamajo, 38, a licensed tax accountant running on the Democratic Party of Japan ticket; and Toshiro Ono, 52, deputy head of the Japanese Communist Party's Miyagi prefectural chapter.
The three contenders in the Shiga race -- Etsuko Narumiya, 56, Issei Tajima, 39, and Osamu Konishi, 43 -- are running for the JCP, DPJ and LDP, respectively.