Kyodo, Oct.10.– Nearly 40 percent of ruling Liberal Democratic Party candidates 
planning to run in the Oct. 22 general election support U.S. military action against North Korea if nuclear and missile issues cannot be resolved peacefully, a recent Kyodo News survey showed.
The survey, released Sunday, also showed that 72.5 percent of candidates expected to run on the ticket of the newly formed Kibo no To (Party of Hope) led by Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike are against amending Japan’s pacifist Constitution while Shinzo Abe remains prime minister.
The survey covered 1,028 candidates confirmed by last Thursday to be running in the election, of whom 948 responded by Sunday. The respondents included 268 from the LDP, 28 from Komeito, the LDP’s junior coalition ally, and 160 from Kibo no To, which has suddenly emerged as the apparent main rival to the LDP.
With the launch of Kibo no To last month leading to the effective collapse of the main opposition Democratic Party, the election is expected to be a three-way battle between the ruling coalition parties, Kibo no To, and other opposition groups including a new party formed by liberal members of the DP ...
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