Photo/Illutration Hiroshige Seko speaks at a news conference in Tanabe, Wakayama Prefecture, on Oct. 5. (Kazuhiko Matsunaga)

TANABE, Wakayama Prefecture--Despite being in disgrace, Hiroshige Seko said he will run in the looming Lower House election and compete against the son of a retiring ruling party veteran.

The Upper House member, who is 61, left the Liberal Democratic Party in April over unreported political funds.

He told a news conference here Oct. 5 he will run in the Wakayama No. 2 district as an independent.

Seko was at pains to emphasize his political experience as a former deputy chief Cabinet secretary and minister of economy, trade and industry.

He will face Nobuyasu Nikai, 46, the third son of former LDP secretary-general Toshihiro Nikai, who plans to run on the ruling party ticket after his father decided not to seek re-election to take responsibility for the LDP’s fund-raising scandal.

“It is up to voters whether to choose me, an experienced politician, or a new face,” Seko said.

Seko left the LDP when the party punished 39 lawmakers, who belonged to its Abe and Nikai factions, for failing to report 5 million yen ($34,000) or more in proceeds from fund-raising parties over five years.

He was one of the two senior Abe faction leaders urged to leave the LDP after being found to have 15.42 million yen in unreported funds.

At the news conference, Seko, former secretary-general of the LDP’s Upper House caucus, apologized for violating the rules and causing distrust in politics.

He said he had given his side of the story to the Upper House Deliberative Council on Political Ethics and noted that prosecutors decided not to indict him after an investigation.

“I will answer questions when they come up on the street or anywhere else,” he said.

Ironically, Seko said he will emphasize greater transparency in money in politics while campaigning for the Lower House election expected on Oct. 27.

Seko also seemed to think he will be allowed to return to the LDP in the future.

The LDP’s Wakayama prefectural chapter was appalled at Seko’s decision to run in the election.

In a statement issued Oct. 4, the day his news conference was set, the chapter said Seko effectively committed a grave breach of party rules, having been nudged out of the party and now contesting the candidate officially endorsed by the LDP.

The prefectural chapter also made clear it opposed Seko returning to the LDP, saying it would be tantamount to disregarding the party rules.

Fumiro Kusumoto, 70, a former prefectural assembly member of the Japanese Communist Party, and Nana Honma, a former official of the ministry of internal affairs and communications, have also announced their candidacies in the Wakayama No. 2 district.

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