The election campaign continues from the date of the June 23rd public announcement until the day before the July 10th House of Councillors election polling day.
The Liberal Democratic Party seems certain to win this election, but we will not know until the polls open.
Unlike the House of Representatives election, which decides the government, the House of Councillors election is relatively quiet.
In the case of Ibaraki Prefecture, the number of seats up for election is two, and since Ibaraki Prefecture is a reasonably large prefecture, election vehicles do not frequently drive around the neighborhood. Even so, they make the rounds several times a day.
In the House of Representatives elections, this number increases dramatically because of primary elections. City council elections, for example, are the most frequent, with campaign vehicles driving around.
The campaign cars simply called out the names of the candidates and gave no specific policies.
Although the Public Offices Election Law has been amended to allow the dissemination of information on the Internet, it seems unlikely that the noisy name-calling in campaign cars will stop. It is as inefficient as this, but some voters complain to the candidates that they are not campaigning if the campaign cars are not rolling, so it seems that there is no stopping them.
Personally, I have already decided which candidate I will vote for this time, so all I have to do is wait for voting day.
