Former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, 84, is battling hard to defy attempts by the Liberal Democratic Party leadership to block his planned run in the upcoming general election.
Yet while Nakasone is affected by a new party rule excluding candidates aged 73 or older from its roster for the proportional representation segment of the ballot, there are plenty of LDP elders who hope to keep their Diet seat in the single-seat constituencies, where the LDP has set no age limit.
Former trade minister Sadanori Yamanaka, 82, plans to run in the No. 5 constituency in Kagoshima Prefecture. Sources close to the lawmaker said that while Yamanaka himself had not been too eager to pursue a 17th term in the House of Representatives, he will run because of strong pressure from local agricultural lobbies.