Japan - October 27, 2024

Japanese voters are demanding the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to address its slush funds scandal and the living crisis as the country's lower house election kicked off on Sunday.

With 465 seats up for grabs in the country's 50th House of Representatives election, a total of 1,344 candidates are running, more than the 1,051 in the last such election in 2021.

Of the 465 seats, 289 will go to directly elected lawmakers from single-seat constituencies nationwide, while another 176 winners will come through a proportional representation system that divides the country into 11 constituencies.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who heads the LDP, has set a modest goal of retaining at least 233 seats for the ruling coalition, enough to maintain a majority in the powerful lower chamber of parliament.

Recent opinion surveys show that the ruling LDP and its junior coalition partner Komeito may struggle, as the LDP is facing headwinds over its factional slush funds scandal and may not be able to win even 200 seats, losing its single-party majority.

The LDP has reportedly given 20 million yen (about 131,000 U.S. dollars) to party branches where candidates have been denied official party endorsement.

Following the reports, opposition parties were ramping up their criticism of the funds provision, with the head of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan describing it as a way to support "clandestine candidates."

Shotlist:
Tokyo, Japan - Oct 27, 2024:
FILE: Tokyo, Japan - Date Unknown
1. Aerial shot of cityscape;
2. Various of pedestrians, buildings;
Tokyo, Japan - Oct 27, 2024
3. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Resident (name not given) (starting with shot 2/ending with shot 4):
"The slush funds scandal is not over yet, but the House of Representatives just dissolved like this. I think the House should be dissolved only after it clearly explains the problem. I hope the new cabinet will make clear how the people's tax money is spent.";
FILE: Tokyo, Japan - Date Unknown
4. Japan's National Diet building;
Tokyo, Japan - Oct 27, 2024
5. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Resident (name not given) (ending with shot 6):
"There are so many worrisome aspects, and it's hard for people to positively face up to the reality. I hope all these problems would be addressed in the future.";
FILE: Tokyo, Japan - Date Unknown
6. Various of National Diet building;
Tokyo, Japan - Oct 27, 2024
7. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Yoshiyuki Yonaiguchi, restaurant owner (starting with shot 6/ending with shot 8):
"As a small store, we would prefer to have a policy or an environment that is favorable to small businesses. If there are such measures that benefit us, we would be very happy. The tax pressure is really weighing on us and it would be a lot easier to do business if we could alleviate that.";
8. Various of Yonaiguchi serving customers, saucers, Yonaiguchi cleaning pot;
9. Gyoza store's promotion advertisement;
FILE: Tokyo, Japan - Aug 14, 2024
10. Various of Liberal Democratic Party headquarters, signs, security personnel;
Tokyo, Japan - Recent
11. Various of National Diet building, Japanese national flag.

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