Public works spending, which provides jobs and money to local construction companies, has been slashed. In five years the spending for the county that includes Nakanojo has been cut by half, from US$96 million in 1998 to US$47 million last year.
Ikehara, the construction company president, said that because of the fall in public works spending, construction companies around here had gone bankrupt or had imposed pay cuts.
Nevertheless, public works still account for half of his company's projects. He could not imagine backing the Democratic Party, led by Naoto Kan, which has pledged in its manifesto to reduce public works by 30 percent over three years.
"The state collects taxes and distributes it," he said. "If it stops coming here, what are the people around here to do? There still aren't political parties that could replace the ruling LDP."
Gumma province's other main industry is growing the konnyaku, or devil's tongue, yam, accounting for more than 80 percent of the national market. The industry survives because of the 990 percent tariff imposed on imports of the vegetable.
The Liberal Democratic Party also remains entrenched in rural areas because of the strength of the support groups like town associations and the construction industry, which line up behind one candidate.
Even in this one-party redoubt, though, there is a growing sense that the country is moving inevitably toward a two-party system.
"There are many young people in urban areas, and they feel like changing political parties," said Iwai, Obuchi's campaign manager. "They think they can make a real comparison for the first time by a change in power. They want to try it, and if it doesn't work they can take it back."
Kamei of the agricultural association said that a two-party system would be good for Japan by making politicians more accountable, but that personally he feared such a change.
"We've never experienced the two-party system," he said. "Apart from whether it is good or bad, I feel anxious."
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