Ichiro Ozawa, former vice president of the Democratic Party of Japan, says he is eager to run in the party's presidential election this Friday.
In an interview taped last week and broadcast Sunday, he said, "I will do my best, regardless of whether I am" running at the front or the back of the pack.
The Fuji TV interview was recorded Friday, shortly after DPJ chief Seiji Maehara and other top party executives announced they were resigning over the fake e-mail that suggested a son of Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe received money illicitly from Takafumi Horie, the founder of Internet firm Livedoor Co. who is now under arrest.