2025 POLLS: Opposition Parties Unify Candidates in 16 Single-Seat Districts

   Tokyo, July 3 (Jiji Press)--Opposition parties have unified candidates in 16 of the 32 constituencies where only one seat is contested in Japan's July 20 House of Councillors election, whose official campaign period started Thursday.
   The results in such single-seat constituencies are expected to affect the overall outcome of the election for the upper chamber of the country's parliament. A survey by Jiji Press found that five opposition parties with 10 or more lawmakers successfully unified candidates in 16 single-seat constituencies, up from 11 in the previous Upper House election in 2022.
   The survey showed that election cooperation among opposition parties made certain progress from three years ago but could still be insufficient as they failed to agree on one candidate in the remaining 16 constituencies.
   The five parties are the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party), the Japanese Communist Party, the Democratic Party for the People and Reiwa Shinsengumi.
   A focus in the election is how many ballots the unified candidates can collect from voters critical of the administration of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in de facto one-on-one battles with ruling bloc competitors in their respective single-seat constituencies.

(2025/07/03-15:37)

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