Veteran journalist Shuntaro Torigoe announced Tuesday he intends to run for governor of Tokyo, saying the sweeping victory for the ruling camp in Sunday's Upper House election forced him to step forward to protect the pacifist Constitution.
Torigoe, 76, a former reporter for the Mainichi Shimbun and news anchor for TV Asahi, has received endorsements from the Democratic Party and three other opposition parties — the Japanese Communist Party, the Social Democratic Party and Seikatsu no To (People's Life Party & Taro Yamamoto and Friends) — as their unified candidate.
During a hastily arranged news conference in Tokyo, Torigoe said he made up his mind to run in the July 31 election after seeing pro-revision forces grab two-thirds of the seats in the Upper House, the threshold needed to initiate a constitutional referendum.