Japan Party Heads Travel 84,000 km in General Election Campaigning

Tokyo, Oct. 27 (Jiji Press)--Heads of Japanese political parties traveled a total of 84,302 kilometers across Japan, equivalent to more than two laps around the earth, for stump speeches during the 12-day official campaign period for Sunday's general election, according to data announced by the parties.

In the campaign period, which ended Saturday night, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, traveled longer than any other party leaders, with 14,387 km.

On Oct. 15, the first day of the campaign period, Ishiba kicked off his stumping tour in the city of Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, which was hit hard by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. He made his final campaign speech in the Toyosu district of Tokyo.

Touring around 23 of the country's 47 prefectures, Ishiba vowed to revitalize regional areas and establish a new government agency for disaster prevention and reduction, both his signature policies.

Yoshihiko Noda, chief of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, traveled 12,347 km. He visited many constituencies in which those involved in the LDP's slush fund scandal ran, stressing that realizing a change of government is the best way of political reform.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]