TOKYO -- Chisato Morishita, a former entertainer and Japan ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) newcomer, is likely to secure a seat in the Tohoku proportional representation bloc in the Oct. 27 House of Representatives election.

Morishita, 43, is a former TV personality from Nagoya, and now lives in Miyagi Prefecture in the Tohoku region. She is known for having been a motorsports model and her past appearances in variety shows and dramas, but she retired from show business at the end of 2019.

Morishita ran in the lower house race for the first time in 2021 in the former Miyagi No. 5 electoral district but fell about 20,000 votes short of defeating Jun Azumi, then Diet Affairs Committee chairperson of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. Morishita also failed to win a seat in the proportional representation system.

Due to the reorganization of single-seat constituencies, the number of electoral districts in Miyagi Prefecture has been reduced from six to five in the latest lower house election. In March 2023, the LDP headquarters decided to field Morishita for proportional representation in the 12-seat Tohoku bloc. She received preferential treatment from the party, being positioned No. 2 in the LDP's Tohoku bloc proportional representation list, and she was the only LDP newcomer nationwide who was placed near the top of the list.

(Japanese original by Ayane Matsuyama, Digital News Group)