The following are campaign pledges made by major political parties on key issues for the July 21 House of Councillors election.

Liberal Democratic Party will:

-- seek to amend the Constitution early on by promoting discussions.

-- strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance and lead rule-making and unification of the international community.

-- increase people's income through a strong economy and raise the consumption tax to 10 percent in October as planned.

-- promote regional economic development and smart farming using advanced technologies.

-- improve protection and care of children in the wake of a series of serious child abuse cases.

Komeito will:

-- provide support for elderly people's safe driving and enhance transportation options for them in the wake of increasing car accidents involving senior drivers.

-- create a successor organization for the Reconstruction Agency scheduled to disband in 2021 to oversee rebuilding of disaster-hit areas and promote disaster prevention.

-- raise the average minimum wage to over 1,000 yen in the first half of the 2020s from the current level of around 870 yen.

-- introduce reduced tax rates for some products and gift certificates to mitigate the impact of the Oct. 1 consumption hike on consumers.

-- slash the monthly salary of upper house lawmakers by 77,000 yen.

Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan will:

-- freeze the planned consumption tax hike to 10 percent and review the progressiveness of income and corporate tax systems.

-- block restarts of idled nuclear plants and enact legislation to exit nuclear power at an early date.

-- place importance on a diverse society and seek to amend laws to allow separate surnames for married couples among other measures to improve equality.

-- discuss constitutional amendment in terms of restricting the prime minister's right to dissolve the House of Representatives.

Japanese Communist Party will:

-- cancel the October consumption tax hike.

-- scrap the macroeconomic slide, designed to limit pension payment increases to less than the rate of inflation or wage increases, and avoid declines in pension benefits in pursuit of a fairer pension system.

-- compile pension reform plans including the utilization of the pension reserve as a funding source for benefits and seek a higher premium burden for high-income earners.

-- block any constitutional amendment and oppose the LDP's plan to rewrite war-renouncing Article 9 aimed at enabling Japan to use force overseas.

-- ban restarts of idled nuclear power plants to exit nuclear power.

-- set a uniform minimum wage of 1,000 yen across Japan.

-- immediately halve university tuition.

Democratic Party for the People will:

-- widen the scope of child allowances while removing the income cap.

-- give 10,000 yen monthly rent subsidies to people earning 5 million yen or less annually.

-- block the consumption tax hike in October.

-- increase payments for low-income pension recipients.

-- introduce a cap on expressway tolls for passenger cars.

Japan Innovation Party will:

-- freeze the consumption tax hike and generate funding for free education by cutting salaries of Diet lawmakers and public servants.

-- seek constitutional amendment to make education free, reform governing structures and establish a constitutional court.

-- establish a national memorial facility for Japanese soldiers who died in World War II and an intelligence organization similar to the Central Intelligence Agency.

-- switch to a pension system in which people receive the pension benefits they have accumulated from the current system which uses working generations' premiums to finance benefits paid to current recipients.