Prime Minister Taro Aso waves to supporters in Omura on Friday. REUTERS

Candidates take to streets to appeal directly to voters

Saturday 29th August, 01:14 AM JST

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13 Comments

maryhinge at 08:41 AM JST - 29th August

Sayonara Aso. You really will go down in history as the last LDP PM who goofed up everything.

Hail Hatoyama! He will make the price of a pack of smokes over 1000 Yen. I can just see all those smelly salarymen puffing them down to the filter instead of stubbing them out half way. Har har.
bobbafett at 09:30 AM JST - 29th August

Everyone I have spoken to in the last week said they will vote DPJ compared to all those who said they did not know a week earlier. Now finally I am starting to think it may swing their way.
tokyochris at 10:14 AM JST - 29th August

I'm still confused - why exactly will Hatoyama do a better job? Some of his promises seem pretty far fetched to me...
dpurcell84 at 11:04 AM JST - 29th August

The Economist came out and said the DPJ would be worse then the DLP. I honestly don't think a platform matters here, it seems most of it is just popularity contest.
kirakira25 at 11:08 AM JST - 29th August

Image over substance, every time.
rajakumar at 11:19 AM JST - 29th August

Less than 24 hours for Japan to make changes in Diet members, for better good of Japan.

Go Japan,Go Japan.
souryeki at 12:03 PM JST - 29th August

A new era will begin from tomorrow. Well at least let us hope this wont be a clone of LDP, Id guess that they will be active on their first 4 years then they`ll start to make their seat confortable and drown in opulence like LDP did. Still it took 55 years to get rid of LDP...

They should make a thank you party to Aso for being such a disaster for his comrades.
gogogo at 12:13 PM JST - 29th August

“There are signs of recovery, but we are still halfway through.”

What signs are they? They sound super desperate.
funkyfresh at 01:28 PM JST - 29th August

Prime Minister Taro Aso waves goodbye to supporters in Omura on Friday. REUTERS

there, image caption has been fixed.
Disillusioned at 03:12 PM JST - 29th August

Neither of the major parties have a hope in Hades of pulling off half the BS they have been preaching. It's all political BS and that is all there is to it. I'd vote for the green party if I was Jpese and also if there was such a thing in Jp.
Scrote at 04:55 PM JST - 29th August

For daft promises you should read the Happiness Realisation Party manifesto, which I was handed today as I walked through town. According to them they will: abolish consumption tax, reduce income tax, abolish highway tolls, build cheap, spacious apartments for all, raise the population to 300 million, build linear magnetic railways all over the country, bring in lots of foreigners as babysitters, build bases on the Moon and Mars and make Japanese GDP the highest in the world.

How about that then? I'll be interested to see how many votes they get. I wonder where they got the money for their campaign, a 32 page glossy manifesto doesn't come cheap.
illsayit at 05:06 PM JST - 29th August

Id vote for that, most people talk green and dont actually do green. The only people sweating are the leaders. I like Japans leaders. I think Asao is fantastic! If Hatoyama comes in, I am sure he would be able to talk to Asao. I think it might have to do with avoiding some sour leaders in the Komeitou, without their catching on?
polarmalik at 08:07 PM JST - 29th August

The Japanese people should vote for Yukio Hatoyama, who heads the opposition Democratic Party of Japan which will bring prosperity and a more independent and free thinking Japan. Japan needs to free itself and start seeing and hearing with its own eyes and ears for a change and form its own strategies with greater wisdom - the Democratic Party of Japan is the right one to make that change. Farakh Malik