TOKYO: The maverick mayor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto, launched his national party onto Japan’s political stage yesterday, vowing to chart a new course for the country.
Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Association) will field 350 candidates across Japan in general elections expected later this year, with the aim of seizing a majority of seats in the powerful lower house.
“Great battles will start from today. I would like to create Japan’s new course together,” Hashimoto told a ceremony in Osaka, his powerbase and the headquarters of the new party, according to Kyodo News. “Our mission is to present a third option to voters” in upcoming polls, the 43-year-old said.
Japan’s established parties are struggling to inspire, with the opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) unable to capitalize on the travails of the governing Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), whose unpopular prime minister has just rammed through a tax rise.
But Hashimoto, a colorful figure in the often staid world of Japanese public life, whose quick wit and ready iconoclasm stand him apart from establishment politicians, has said he will not run for parliament himself.
Instead the former lawyer and father-of-seven will remain in Osaka as leader of his new party while continuing his day job as mayor of Japan’s second biggest city.
Commentators say the decision to base the party anywhere other than Tokyo could chime with voters fed up of the very centralized nature of Japan, where all roads lead to the heaving metropolis.
n FROM: Agence France Presse
Maverick mayor launches new Japan party
