Campaigning starts for Japan's upper house election on July 10

Official campaigning began Wednesday in Japan for the House of Councillors election on July 10, as the ruling and opposition parties rush to address inflation concerns and spar over whether a more robust defense posture is necessary in the wake of Russia's war on Ukraine.A total of 125 seats are up for grabs in the 248-member upper house, with a total of 545 people filing their candidacies. The number is a sharp rise from the 370 candidates in the last upper house election in 2019.The number of female candidates this time round hit an all-time high of 181, eclipsing the previous record of 1…READ FULL ARTICLE