The Social Democratic Party is in trouble. All but four of its members in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly have deserted the party, and those who have stayed are facing an uphill battle.

Indeed, Mutsumi Sakuma, one of the four, has found she has to depend more on the Democratic Party of Japan than the SDP. Sakuma, the SDP's official candidate for the Minami-Tama constituency, was featured at a DPJ rally May 30 for the entire Tama region in Tachikawa. But at the same time, the SDP was holding its "All-Party Rally" at SDP headquarters in the Nagatacho area.

Her conspicuous absence there is said to be symptomatic of the party's difficulty, if not crisis, in handling the campaign. "The Liberal Democratic Party could occupy both of the seats in the constituency," said Harufumi Yamamoto, Sakuma's campaign chief. "I think all the SDP candidates are facing a tough race this time."

Sakuma was at the DPJ rally because she has been designated by that party as a "suisen" candidate -- one who is recommended by a party despite being outside it. Sakuma said that without the suisen status, the race would be quite tough because the Seikatsu-Sha Network, which supported her in the last election, no longer backs her and is instead fielding its own candidate.

In sharp contrast to the SDP is the Japanese Communist Party, which is now fielding its largest force ever. Its 44-member team covers all 42 constituencies in the election.

In Ota and Setagaya wards, the JCP even managed to field two candidates for each area. The last time the party won four seats in the two wards at one time was in 1973, when the party won a historic landslide victory. "The responses of the voters have been particularly good, compared with the previous elections," said Nobuo Kikuchi, the Setagaya committee chairman of the JCP.

The JCP has apparently garnered popularity by pledging to fight a number of reductions in the welfare budget that have been planned to curb the mounting deficit of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Kikuchi also claimed that the policies of all the other political parties look almost the same, which makes the JCP "the only real opposition party" in Tokyo.

Of course, running several candidates in a constituency means taking the risk that both could fail if they split the vote. As a result, the JCP is proceeding with a variety of campaign tactics it has never tried, including lobbying local business associations, a traditional LDP stronghold.