TOKYO — Leaders of Japan's major political parties kicked off campaigning Tuesday for this month's parliamentary elections in nuclear crisis-hit Fukushima prefecture, where more than 100,000 people remain displaced from their homes. Nuclear energy and reviving the stagnant economy are key issues in the Dec. 16 election, which Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's unpopular Democratic Party of Japan is expected to lose after three years in power. But with polls showing more than 40 percent of voters are undecided, many are not excited about any particular party. No one party has even 20 percent of the public's support, according to one recent survey. The opposition Liberal Democratic Party, which ruled Japan for most of the post-World War II era, is leading in polls but unlikely to win a majority in the 480-member lower house of parliament. The most likely outcome of the election is a coalition government composed of parties that could have competing interests. That would mean more gridlock despite urgent needs to tackle Japan's many complex problems, from reining in its national debt and coping with a graying population to reconstructing communities wiped out by the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami. “By starting right here, we are reaffirming our belief that the reconstruction of Japan is not possible without the reconstruction of Fukushima. We hope to start Japan's rebirth,” Noda told supporters in Iwaki. The city is just southwest of the 20-km no-go zone surrounding the nuclear plant, which spewed radiation into the surrounding farmland and ocean. In Fukushima city, about 60 kilometers west of the plant, LDP's hawkish leader Shinzo Abe told crowds that his party could be trusted to revive the economy and restore national confidence. “We need an economy that will reward our sweat and hard work and make us wealthy and increase our income,” said Abe, the front-runner to become the next prime minister. “We will create a Japan in which those born in this country will feel joy, and regain a nation in which our children will be proud to be born in Japan. I ask you to lend us your hand.” For Kazuo Okawa, a plumber who had worked at the Fukushima plant as a contractor, politicians' speeches are an empty show. He said no candidates have come to the evacuation center where he lives, a former high school near Tokyo where 160 people still remain. Government officials concede they don't know when residents who lived around the nuclear plant will be able to return to their homes. “Those politicians are discussing policies in Tokyo, Osaka or wherever, far away from us. We've always had to reach out for help,” Okawa said in a telephone interview. — AP
