In a bizarre development, a Lower House member has decided to give up his seat and run for the same chamber again.

Takashi Fukaya, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party's Policy Affairs Research Council, intends to quit the Diet and run in a supplementary Lower House election in Tokyo's No. 2 district. The poll is being held to replace Kunio Hatoyama, deputy head of the Democratic Party of Japan, who is relinquishing his seat to run in the April 11 Tokyo gubernatorial election.

In the last Lower House election, held in October 1996, Hatoyama was elected from the single-seat Tokyo No. 2 district, beating Fukaya, his longtime rival. Fukaya, however, gained a seat under the proportional representation system, for which he also ran at the same time.