Nippon Mirai no To (Tomorrow Party of Japan) leader and Shiga Gov. Yukiko Kada apologized Wednesday for her newly formed party's chaotic and delayed submission of proportional representation candidate lists for the Dec. 16 general election.

The week-old party filed most of the lists with the internal affairs ministry right on Tuesday's 5 p.m. deadline, and it then took some 5½ hours before the lists and accompanying documentation were finally accepted — an unusually long time to process them.

"As party chief, I apologize for the lack of preparations," Kada told reporters in Tokyo.