Kazuo Maeda, a former Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker in the Lower House, filed his candidacy for a Hokkaido assembly district that includes the city of Hakodate on Friday — the day campaigning kicked off — and was declared the winner the very same day.
With only one other person running for the two district seats, Maeda, 56, is not the only candidate in this year’s series of nationwide local elections to win without the need to first campaign against an opponent.
In Hokkaido, 30 of the 100 prefectural assembly seats, or 41% of the prefecture’s 46 districts, were uncontested. Nationwide, a quarter of candidates in 41 prefectural assembly elections ran unopposed — the second highest ever — prompting even the winners to call for reforms that would hopefully lead to more competitive races.