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Japan election

Japan's parties draw battle lines as election campaign begins

Two major blocs face off over COVID and legacy of Abenomics

The Liberal Democratic Party leader, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Constitutional Democratic Party leader Yukio Edano. The ruling coalition faces a test from the CDP together with three smaller parties. (Source photo by Uichiro Kasai and Kai Fujii)

TOKYO -- The 12-day campaign for control of Japan's government got underway on Tuesday, with over 1,000 candidates vying for 465 seats in the Oct. 31 lower house election.

By Tuesday afternoon's deadline, 1,051 candidates had filed to run, the lowest number over the past nine lower house elections since Japan introduced the proportional representation system along with its single-seat constituency system in 1996.

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