JCP Tokyo prefectural committee chair runs for Tokyo governor

The Japanese Communist Party has nominated its candidate for the next election for the Tokyo governor.

At a news conference on February 21, JCP Chair Shii Kazuo announced that Wakabayashi Yoshiharu, JCP Tokyo Metropolitan Committee chair, is the JCP candidate.

The election will be held on April 3.

Shii said that the JCP decided to put up its own candidate to fulfill its responsibility to Tokyo citizens because the Association for Progressive Metropolitan Administration has no candidate to put up.

He said that Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro, the likely opponent, has slashed various social services and made extraordinary hawkish remarks. In the election campaign which will be fierce, the JCP will directly fight against the governor and his bad politics, Shii added. (end)