After largely being overlooked and receiving scant media coverage, 15 lesser-known candidates in Sunday's Tokyo gubernatorial election had a last chance on Friday to make their case on how they would shake-up the mega city.
The 15, who include a journalist, entrepreneur and dentist, spoke in a joint appearance at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo. They are all polling well behind the three front-runners: Yuriko Koike, Hiroya Masuda and Shuntaro Torigoe.
One of the challengers, Hiroko Nanami, of the Happiness Realization Party, said she wanted to boost Tokyo's disaster preparedness by taking advantage of the nation's state-of-the-art technology to make buildings more resistant to quakes and fires.