Four politicians filed their candidacies Monday for the Democratic Party of Japan's presidential election, as the nation's largest opposition party kicked off two weeks of campaigning.
The four candidates for the Sept. 23 election are: President Yukio Hatoyama; Secretary General Naoto Kan; former Vice President Takahiro Yokomichi, and Yoshihiko Noda, who is representing a younger group of lawmakers.
It is the first time the party's leaders have run against each other since the 1999 presidential race.