Election campaigning underway in Japan as Abe takes on Hope

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (C), who is also ruling Liberal Democratic Party leader, shout slogans with a local candidate (L) and a supporter during an election campaign rally in Fukushima, Japan, October 10, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

TOKYO (Reuters) - Election campaigning in Japan began in earnest on Tuesday with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seeking to repel an upstart new party that has pledged to rid the government of cronyism in a challenge to Abe's near-five year hold on power.

The Oct. 22 lower house election pits Abe's Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition against the less than one-month-old Party of Hope headed by popular Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, a former LDP lawmaker often floated as a possible first female premier.