Ex-Japan Coast Guard Official Announces Bid for Niigata Governor

May 16, 2018

Niigata- Hideyo Hanazumi said Tuesday he will run in the Niigata gubernatorial election in June.

Hanazumi, 59, announced his candidacy upon quitting the Japan Coast Guard effective the same day. He was vice commandant of the coast guard.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, Komeito, will back him.

The campaign period for the election, to be held following the resignation of Ryuichi Yoneyama as governor of the central Japan prefecture, is slated to start on May 24 for voting on June 10.

"This is an abnormal situation in which Yoneyama quit just after one and a half years in office," Hanazumi told a press conference in the city of Niigata, referring to the former governor's resignation last month over affairs with women.

"I want to restore trust in prefectural politics as soon as possible and bring stability," he said.

Hanazumi also said he will not accept the restart of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s <9501> Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in the prefecture until an expert panel of the Niigata government concludes its study on evacuation procedures, health impacts from a possible nuclear accident and the cause of the 2011 triple meltdown at TEPCO's crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

Chikako Ikeda, a 57-year-old member of the Niigata prefectural assembly belonging a group of the former Democratic Party and the Social Democratic Party, has already announced her bid for the governorship. Jiji Press