Voters air adulation, anger at Takaichi as Japan election officially starts

TOKYO - Voters on Tuesday expressed adulation and anger toward Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi as she delivered her first stump speech in Tokyo to kick off official campaigning for a Feb. 8 general election.

Kiyoshi Sekiguchi, 81, said he has voted for Takaichi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party in the past, but that the prime minister's address to a packed morning crowd in Tokyo's Akihabara neighborhood was his first time seeing a politician speak live. "The LDP before was no good, but with Takaichi it's different," he said.