OSAKA -- Kiyomi Tsujimoto likes to call herself the "wasabi of Japanese politics," whose job is to add some zest to the blandness of debate.

But with less than two weeks until the July 11 House of Councilors election, it remains unclear whether voters want a second helping of the fiery populist, who resigned from the House of Representatives in disgrace in 2002 when reports surfaced that she had skimmed nearly 19 million yen in state-paid salaries for her in-name-only secretaries.

Tsujimoto, a former policy chief of the Social Democratic Party, was convicted of fraud earlier this year and handed a suspended sentence.