As of June 1, 331 people are planning to run in the House of Councillors election in July, the Nikkei learned from a survey it conducted. The rate of competition in the election will be 2.7. The Democratic Party (DP), Japanese Communist Party (JCP), Social Democratic Party (SDP) and People’s Life Party (PLP) have decided to field unified candidates in all 32 electorates for which one seat is up for grabs. This is the first time for the opposition forces, including the JCP, to file unified candidates in a national election.

The numbers of seats to be contested are 73 constituency seats and 48 proportional representation bloc seats. A total of 201 people are expected to compete for the constituency seats and 130 people plan to vie for the seats under the proportional representation segment. With the Upper House election coming up in July, the number of people planning to run in the election is fewer than it was in early June in 2013.

Attention is focused on whether the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition partner, the Komeito party, can secure a majority of the seats up for reelection and whether the LDP can gain a sole majority. People are also watching to see whether the LDP, Komeito, and minor opposition parties, Initiatives from Osaka and Japanese Kokoro, can secure a two-thirds majority of the Upper House seats as required for proposing constitutional amendments.

The four opposition parties, including the DP, aim to prevent the ruling coalition and other parties from gaining a two-thirds majority of the Upper House seats by fielding unified candidates in the poll.