Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato said Thursday that he will not seek a third term in office and will not run in the gubernatorial election in late October, citing his recent decision to accept a plan to build contaminated soil storage facilities near the crippled nuclear power plant in exchange for state subsidies.
"I've made key progress in the challenges facing Fukushima as we seek to rebuild it," Sato told a news conference in the city of Fukushima. "I've come to think that rebuilding should be implemented under a new leader."
The prefectural chapter of the Democratic Party of Japan, the main opposition force, and the prefectural chapter of a major labor union federation had urged the 66-year-old governor to seek another four-year term in the Oct. 26 election.