Nobuaki Hanaoka, a former Sankei Shimbun editorial writer, said Wednesday that he has dropped plans to run in the Nagano gubernatorial election in September.
Hanaoka told reporters at the prefectural office that he decided instead to throw his support behind candidate Keiko Hasegawa, a 50-year-old lawyer, to give her a better chance against former Nagano Gov. Yasuo Tanaka.
The announcement came one day before the official election campaign kicks off for the Sept. 1 race.
Appearing in front of the media together with Hasegawa, Hanaoka, 56, said the two decided to work together to beat Tanaka, who lost his post in line with the prefectural assembly's passage of a no-confidence resolution against him but who still enjoys high popularity with voters.