Election campaign kicks off with voting age lowered from 20 to 18

Japan's parliamentary election campaign kicked off on Wednesday as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling party seeks a mandate for his economic policies amid opposition criticism that the lives of the ordinary people are not improving.

As more than 380 candidates took to the streets across the nation, pleading for votes from vans outside train stations and shopping arcades, Abe opened the campaign with a pledge to proceed with his "Abenomics" plan to revive the economy and pull the country out of a slump.

"The biggest topic of this election is economic policies," Abe said in Kumamoto, a southern city struck by deadly earthquakes in April. "This is an election in which we decide whether to return to that dark doldrums or not."