Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, coleader of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), said again Friday that he won't run in this summer's Upper House election, saying his power as a Diet member would be so limited that all he'd be able to do is hang out at ramen stands.
"Even if I became a Diet member, I couldn't get any work done. I'd be shut inside the Diet lodgings, only venturing outside for ramen or soba noodles," Hashimoto said on his Twitter account, a day after he told reporters in Osaka he won't run.
If Hashimoto were to change his mind, it would require him first resigning as mayor, meaning another costly mayoral election would have to be held in July, less than two years after the previous election, a move that would anger the city's taxpayers.