Nippon Ishin no Kai head and Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui confirmed that Toru Hashimoto, the former Osaka governor and mayor who helped found the Ishin movement, will be a speaker at the new political school founded last month by Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike.
"Their policies, especially in regards to things like deregulation, are things the Liberal Democratic Party can't approve of," Matsui told reporters Wednesday. "If Koike can get things done, we can tie up and it's inevitable that she'll distance herself from the LDP."
Matsui said that it was Koike who originally approached Hashimoto about speaking at her newly established school for political aspirants, and that he encouraged Hashimoto to take the governor up on her offer at a party meeting last month.