As an election to Japan’s House of Councillors – the upper house of the Diet – nears, political campaign season is underway. In Tokyo, candidates, donning a white sash and gloves, wait outside train stations to distribute leaflets, give speeches, and shake hands with locals, despite the summer heat.
And this is just part of the pre-campaign period. Japan’s official campaign window starts on July 3 and runs through July 19, with election day set for July 20. The start of the official campaign period will allow candidates to make direct appeals for votes.
Constitutional revision, cost of living, economic growth, wage stagnation, social security, and demographic decline remain key national concerns. There are 124 out of 248 seats up for grabs.
Japanese politics has long been dominated by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), with occasional breakthroughs by the largest opposition party (currently branded as the Constitutional Democratic Party). But recently a new group – Nippon Ishin no Kai, also known as the Japan Innovation Party – has emerged on the scene.
In last year’s lower house election, the party swept all 19 constituencies in Osaka Prefecture. Nippon Ishin’s ascent to the third-largest bloc in the lower house was remarkable, given its roots in Osaka and limited national footprint. The upper house race marks its latest attempt to go nationwide – and its campaign is centering economic and livelihood issues, amid rising inflation that has many Japanese worried about making ends meet.
For example, Nippon Ishin has pledged to eliminate structural inequalities in education by making schooling free from preschool through university, scrapping school lunch fees, and overhauling higher education to emphasize research rather than job placement.
For Seiji Maehara, the party’s co-president, free education isn’t just policy — it’s a political mission. He dissolved his own party, Free Education for All, in 2023 to bring the cause into Nippon Ishin.
Maehara called for the constitution to be amended to enable tuition-free education as a tool to “sever the chain of poverty.” He criticized the government’s current portion of public education spending of 2.9 percent of nominal GDP as being well below the OECD average of approximately 4.5 percent.
“In Japan, more than 63 percent of education costs are borne by households. That is more than double the OECD average of around 28 percent,” he said at a press conference last Thursday. “This clearly shows that Japan places an exceptionally heavy financial burden on families, while public investment in education remains limited.”
Japan’s prolonged economic stagnation, often referred to as the “lost 30 years,” stems in part from a failure to renew its industrial base, Maehara said at the press conference. He argued that encouraging startups and phasing out low-productivity firms that can’t keep up with wage growth are essential. He added that universities should also become platforms for nurturing startups, which the party sees as an integral component of economic revitalization.
Nippon Ishin argues that its refusal to accept corporate or organizational donations allows it to pursue unencumbered reforms, including aggressive deregulation aimed at spurring new industries and job creation. Maehara said Abenomics “fell short because it didn’t deliver the structural reforms needed to harness the potential of the private sector.”
The party’s proposals also include lifting the current ban on ride-sharing services, allowing full corporate participation in farming, and reforming the use of public airwaves. It plans to introduce competitive bidding for cell phones, TV, radio, and wireless internet frequencies instead of allocating them directly to major telecom companies.
Nippon Ishin is also pushing for an overhaul of the country’s overburdened social security system. The party proposes slashing 4 trillion yen ($25.5 billion) in annual healthcare spending and cutting insurance premiums by 60,000 yen ($382) per person per annum. The move hinges on digital record-keeping and the use of artificial intelligence in diagnostics. Nippon Ishin claims it will ease the burden on both government coffers and individual households.
The party has also waded into hot-button social issues. In many parts of the country, the strain of overcrowding at tourist hotspots on local infrastructure and transportation has become a point of contention. Compounding the frustration are reports of “disruptive behavior” such as jaywalking, trespassing, and littering. The surge in tourism has prompted a broader conversation about how long-term foreign residents interact with public spaces and access community services.
Nippon Ishin upper house lawmaker Yanagase Hirofumi has emerged as a vocal critic of Japan’s current naturalization process. He appealed to the Justice Ministry to raise the bar for acquiring Japanese citizenship, claiming that “there are people gaining citizenship without a deep understanding of Japan.” Yanagase also proposed limiting voting and election candidacy rights for first-generation naturalized citizens.
At the press conference, party co-president Maehara expressed the need to welcome and coexist with foreigners. “Our view is that foreign visitors are very welcome, and we hope they can be good neighbors with whom we can prosper,” he said. But he was unable to provide details ahead of the release of the party’s upcoming manifesto at the end of June.
Beyond policy, Maehara was candid about the party’s long-term ambitions. He acknowledged that transforming Nippon Ishin into a national party requires strong regional leaders who serve as “local anchors” in the community.
“It may seem like the long way around, but we believe that nurturing people who sympathize with the policies we discussed today and who can become regional anchors is the most direct path to becoming a truly national party,” he asserted.
Nippon Ishin is expected to unveil its candidate lineup at the start of the official campaign period.