Official campaigning for local-level elections started Thursday, with the ruling and opposition parties set to vie for seats in nearly 1,000 polls nationwide to choose governors, mayors and assembly members.
The revitalization of regional economies amid a falling population is likely to be the main issue in local elections, which are held simultaneously every four years to cut costs and improve voter turnout.
While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party won a landslide victory in the Lower House election in December, a poor performance in the local elections would be a blow to the administration, which has seen ruling party-backed candidates defeated in a series of gubernatorial polls in recent months.