Two days into the campaign for the Lower House election, former Prime Minister Naoto Kan made a stump speech last Thursday at Fuchu Station in his western Tokyo constituency.
Though a prominent advocate for the elimination of nuclear energy, many passersby didn't even recognize the man who was leading Japan at the time of the Fukushima crisis, and simply breezed past him. Some stopped and listened but most just took pictures of him with their smartphones and swiftly went on their way.
"As the prime minister who handled the nuclear crisis after the March 2011 natural disasters, I believe it is my duty to lead this country in gradually phasing out nuclear power," Kan, 66, told around 30 of his constituents in front of the station, in stark contrast to the hundreds who gathered at his campaign stops during the last general election in 2009.