Yokohama anti-IR parties seek single mayoral candidate

The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan is still seeking a single anti-IR candidate to run for the Yokohama mayoral elections.

Japan.- With Yokohama’s mayoral elections to be held on Sunday August 22, the opposition is still seeking a unified anti-IR candidate.

While current pro-IR mayor Fumiko Hayashi has yet to announce whether she will run for a fourth term in office, the biggest opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), has not yet reached an agreement on a unified anti-IR candidate.

The CDPJ initially hoped to select a candidate by the end of March, but could not reach an agreement. The party then set an objective of the end of the Labour Day break, but according to local media, the CDPJ now expects to choose a candidate by the end of May.

The second-largest opposition party in the country, the Japan Communist Party, offered to withdraw its independent candidate to give more chances to a single anti-IR candidate, but the CDPJ appears to be unsure about the strategy.

In the meantime, there are currently two independent anti-IR candidates who have launched their respective campaigns.

Masataka Ota is a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party who has expressed his stance against Yokohama participating in a bid for an integrated resort licence many times.

Then there’s Akiko Fujimura, the representative director of an animal welfare group, who has stated that if she wins the election, she will order the immediate cancellation of the city’s IR project.