It looks like the Liberal Democratic Party has cuter ideas than "Abenomics" to enthrall the public ahead of the Upper House election this summer.
Illustrated characters resembling Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Secretary General Shigeru Ishiba have recently been selected to promote the resurgent LDP and its conservative causes with a requisite dash of cute.
The illustrations were drawn by Reika Takahashi, 47, a Hokkaido painter whose works were chosen from more than 400 other submissions made to the LDP last year.