Election broadcasts are a bit of a circus in Japan. Legally, the public broadcaster NHK is obliged to show them and this is why so many fringe and wacky candidates ultimately pay to stand for election, because it means they're guaranteed several minutes of fame. This year is particularly strange with the July election for Tokyo governor, since there are so many candidates (but only two or three serious ones). Already, the "poster hijacks" by the NHK Party, which has sold its candidates' slots to anyone willing to pay, have generated lots of attention, as have the nude images of a woman on ...

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