As a follow-up to Saturday’s review of the races in Hokkaido, this story from Hokkaido should be of interest.

Nakagawa Shoichi, the former finance minister who I suggested faces an uphill battle for reelection in Hokkaido’s eleventh district, went before a meeting of his koenkai to declare that from henceforth he will abstain from alcohol (cold turkey, I wonder).

That Nakagawa felt it necessary to do so presumably suggests that his antics in Rome rattled his supporters’ confidence in him, perhaps to the point of abandoning him in this election.