Although more than 200 people nationwide have expressed interest in running as Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) candidates in the July Upper House election, internal tensions have once again raised questions about the party's stability.
Relations remain strained within the party's Osaka bloc, including between party leader Toru Hashimoto, who is the mayor of Osaka, and Secretary General Ichiro Matsui, the Osaka governor, and its Diet members, including recently hospitalized Shintaro Ishihara and Takeo Hiranuma.
Later this month, Nippon Ishin members will formalize plans for the upcoming poll, for which Matsui said last week the party now have over 200 possible candidates. In addition, the party will discuss running candidates in prefectures where incumbent governors have expressed doubts about, or direct opposition to, ending the prefectural system and creating a semiautonomous regional bloc system, long a key Nippon Ishin goal.