Campaigning for the Oct. 27 Lower House election kicks off Tuesday, as Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, just over two weeks after taking office on Oct. 1, puts the issue of trust in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party into the hands of voters.
Rocked by a political funds scandal that engulfed the party and led to the dissolution of most of its factions, the LDP faces its toughest election since 2012, when it ousted the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan — progenitor of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP) — to retake control of the government.
The publicly unpopular Ishiba, who declared a snap election on Oct. 9, faces a difficult challenge in convincing skeptical voters that the party has cleaned house by deciding not to give party backing to a dozen lawmakers associated with the scandal. A Kyodo News poll taken over the weekend showed a 42% approval rate for the Ishiba administration, down from the 50.7% support recorded in a poll taken on Oct. 1 and 2 right after it was formed.
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