Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) will officially stay out of the March 23 Osaka mayoral snap election, which its co-leader, Mayor Toru Hashimoto, forced earlier this month after he resigned to protest opposition in the municipal assembly toward merging Osaka's municipal and prefectural governments on his schedule.
Hashimoto has told senior party leaders that this was a personal campaign. Party leaders are expected to vote Saturday to allow the election to be officially endorsed only by Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka), the local political group founded by Hashimoto and Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui, who also serves as Nippon Ishin's secretary-general.
Nippon Ishin, which grew out of Hashimoto's and Matsui's efforts with Osaka Ishin, is an authorized national political party, while Osaka Ishin is not.