Japan's general election campaigning begins

The Official campaigning has kicked off for Japan's Lower House election on December 16th.Voters are to decide whether to keep the Democratic Party in power or bring back the Liberal Democrats. Another focus is how new smaller parties will influence the country's politics.Candidate registration closed at 5 PM on Tuesday.

The number of candidates for 300 single-seat districts is 1,294, the most under the current election system.
Democratic Party candidates are of 264  ; 288 from the Liberal Democratic Party; 111 from the newly-founded Tomorrow Party; 9 from New Komeito; 151 from the recently-founded Restoration Party; 299 from the Japanese Communist Party; 65 from Your Party; 23 from the Social Democratic Party; 7 from New Party DAICHI; 2 from the People's New Party; and one from New Party Nippon.