https://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/463841

　On the 22nd, the Liberal Democratic Party announced that it would field 13 candidates for the second round of single-seat constituencies in the House of Representatives election (announced on the 27th, voting on February 8th), including former Osaka 5th District incumbent Mio Sugita. Sugita was disciplined for her involvement in a faction party slush fund scandal. She has also been found to have committed human rights violations by legal authorities for discriminatory behavior toward minorities.

◆ She lost the proportional representation election in the July 2025 House of Councillors election.

Sugita Mio (photographed in 2025)

　Sugita was elected three times as a member of the former Abe faction. She failed to report 15.64 million yen in her political funding report, and the party imposed a six-month suspension on her. She decided not to run in the last House of Representatives election in 2024, and ran in the House of Councillors election in July last year as a proportional representative candidate, but was defeated.

　In a magazine published in 2018, she claimed that LGBTQ people (sexual minorities) are "unproductive." She also posted photos on her blog and elsewhere, writing, "Cosplay ladies in traditional Ainu costumes like traditional Korean dresses like traditional Korean dresses," and "Just breathing the same air as them makes me feel sick," which was deemed a human rights violation by legal authorities in 2023.

　In the second round of official endorsements, the Komeito Party, which is withdrawing from single-seat constituencies, has fielded candidates in Tokyo's 29th district and Hiroshima's 3rd district, where it had contested until the last House of Representatives election, including Osaka's 5th district. It has recommended independent candidate Morishima Tadashi (Osaka's 2nd district), who joined a House of Representatives group in the recent extraordinary Diet session and contributed to the ruling party's loss of a majority, and has also decided to support Saiki Takeshi (Fukui's 2nd district). (Ohno Nobuko)