Japan (Fukuoka City): Voters head to the polls today in Japan's sixth-largest city. This part of the country is usually classic LDP (Conservative) country, but the mainstream opposition has emerged as its own force in this election, for the first time since 2010.
Incumbent Soichiro Takashima (Ind, *), who first won in that year, is officially fully independent, but has the backing of most of the local LDP - no mean feat in Fukuoka's fractious branches - and local Komeito (Centre-right). He faces two challengers.
His chief opponent will likely be former city councillor Shinsuke Tanaka (Ind, *), backed by CDP (Centre-left), DPP (Centre-right), and SDP (Centre-left). JCP (Left) and Reiwa (Left) have not endorsed, although politicians from both have spoken at a rally for Tanaka.
The third candidate in this race is more of a wildcard. Eiji Kumamaru (Ind, *) has stood for N-Koku (*) in national elections before, but has pivoted to making speeches that would place him closer to Tanaka.
One might expect a rare local race without a 'grand coalition' to feature a major policy battle, as in Okinawa, but this does not seem to be the case. All candidates back the major redevelopments ongoing in the city centre; the disagreement is merely about how to utilise them.
One poll has been conducted for this race, showing Takashima with a broadly comfortable lead, although it was conducted over a week ago.
Japan (Ehime): Unlike the relatively dramatic Fukuoka mayoral, the race to be governor of this Shikoku prefecture is set to be very sedate - although not as sedate as the election for the mayor of its capital, decided earlier this week without a vote being conducted.
Ehime has not had a competitive gubernatorial election since 1999, and the last truly close race here was in 1971. There are already signs that three-term incumbent Tokihiro Nakamura (Ind, *) will not be responsible for bucking that trend.
Nakamura has been endorsed by LDP (Conservative), Komei (Centre-right), and DPP (Centre-right). His lone opponent, Noriko Hayashi, is a JCP (Left) partisan - a break from the usual JCP practice of presenting as a united citizens' opposition, maybe a sign of weakness for Hayashi.
Japan (Okinawa): 2022 is an "election year" in Okinawa: in addition to today's gubernatorial election, and those for the mayoralties of cities such as Naha and Nago taking place at other times in the year, a large cluster of local polls throughout the prefecture are held today.
Two in particular warrant further attention. One is for the mayoralty of Ginowan, the city host to the urban Futenma base that the LDP (Conservative) controversially wishes to relocate northwards. This context has made Ginowan LDP-friendly turf, but polls show a very close race.
The other is a by-election to the prefectural council, for one seat in Naha's 11-seat constituency. The chamber is so finely balanced that councillors loyal to Gov. Tamaki (Ind, *) will only secure a majority if former Naha city councillor Kaiza Uehara (Ind, *) wins here.