With the coming election in mind, former House of Representatives member Kaoru Yosano last spring departed the Liberal Democratic Party faction led by Shizuka Kamei.

The Kamei faction is known for pushing public works projects as a way of propping up the economy, especially rural areas that are traditional LDP voter bastions.

Yosano, 65, decided that to make himself more attractive to Tokyo's unaffiliated voters, he needed to distance himself from Kamei's faction and its pork-barrel trappings.