Tuesday's start of campaigning for the Sept. 11 Lower House election marked the beginning of fierce battles not only among party leaders but also candidates under the spotlight.

These include the "assassins" Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has fielded in several single-seat districts to run against rebels from the Liberal Democratic Party who voted against his postal privatization bills.

In the Hiroshima No. 6 district, Shizuka Kamei, 68, a renegade former LDP heavyweight running on the Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party) ticket, is in a faceoff with Livedoor Co. President Takafumi Horie, 32, who is running as an independent in support of Koizumi's reforms.