The official campaign for the 2016 House of Councillors election kicked off on 22 June. A total of 389 candidates declared to run in the election that will be taken place on 10 July, vying for half of the chamber's 242 seats. As PM Abe calls economy "the biggest theme of the election", the coalition of the ruling party LDP and Komeito emphasizes the success of Abenomics while the oppositions focus on balancing growth with the distribution of wealth. For more details, please click the link below for the article by Kyodo in Nikkei Asian Review.