Takashi Fukaya, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's decision-making Executive Council, formally declared Monday he will not run in a House of Representatives by-election in Tokyo slated for April 11.
Fukaya, who gained the seat under the proportional representation system in the 1996 Lower House election, announced his decision after meeting with Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi at LDP headquarters. Obuchi serves as LDP president.
Fukaya had been considering a run for the Lower House seat vacated by Kunio Hatoyama, the former deputy head of the Democratic Party of Japan who was elected from Tokyo's No. 2 single-seat constituency and beat Fukaya in the 1996 general election. Despite the defeat, Fukaya secured his current Lower House seat through a recently revised electoral system that permits candidates to run simultaneously for both single-seat and proportional representation constituencies.