Official campaigning got under way Thursday for the Upper House election later this month in a key gauge of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's leadership over the past seven months.
Abe, who heads the Liberal Democratic Party, hit the campaign trail in Fukushima Prefecture, an area badly hit by the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis.
"We cannot proceed with reconstruction as well as economic revival if the Diet remains divided. I want to end that," Abe said in a stump speech, referring to the dominance of opposition parties in the Upper House.