Former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama officially announced Wednesday he will not run in the Dec. 16 Lower House election and instead will retire from politics.
Hatoyama, 65, who has strongly opposed Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's key initiatives, including the consumption tax hike and participating in the free-trade Trans-Pacific Partnership, refused to sign the Democratic Party of Japan's mandatory pledge to march in lockstep to the party's orders and is leaving the DPJ.
The former prime minister had been one of the core DPJ members trying to block Noda and his leadership from pursuing the contentious goals. Many of his fellow dissenters, including Ichiro Ozawa, departed the DPJ, but Hatoyama stayed to the end.