Masayoshi Tsuji, 85, keeps empty one of the second-floor rooms in his house here in case his elder brother, Masanobu, suddenly shows up after an absence of 39 years.

Prominently displayed in the room is a large hanging scroll of the Chinese character "kotobuki" (celebration), but its intended guest is widely believed to be dead.

It takes about an hour by car from Komatsu airport to Masanobu Tsuji's hometown of Imadachi in Ishikawa Prefecture. A statue of Tsuji in a Western suit stands in the nearby town of Aradani.

Kiyoshi Minamide, a 69-year-old farmer whose house is just across the street from the statue, said he assisted in Tsuji's election campaigns and sometimes visited Kanazawa, the prefectural capital, as a campaigner.