The newly founded Happiness Realization Party denied Thursday it would withdraw from the Aug. 30 general election, apparently reversing a decision to cancel the fielding of 347 candidates nationwide.
At a news conference, however, officials from the party, which was founded by the Happy Science religion, said they would be unable to field some of the candidates who initially intended to run. They didn't elaborate.
According to sources, Ryuho Okawa, the leader of Happiness Realization, told some candidates the party planned to withdraw from the election. But some of them apparently opposed the move, and party executives were discussing their options, the sources said.
"A responsible department of the party headquarters told us the party will not run in the election," a source at Happiness Realization's local branch in Kyoto Prefecture said before Thursday's denial.
"What the top leader is said to be thinking was conveyed to me. I think the party will withdraw from the election," a candidate planning to run in Tokyo said.
The party has said it planned to field candidates in all 300 single-seat and 11 proportional-representation constituencies.
Okawa said last month that he himself would run in the election, placing himself at the head of the list of party candidates in the Tokyo proportional-representation block.
