Photo/Illutration Shinji Ishimaru announces his party's candidates for the upcoming Upper House election to reporters in Tokyo on April 25. (Naoki Nakayama)

Rising political figure Shinji Ishimaru has announced that his newly founded party will field 10 candidates in the upcoming Upper House election in July, expanding its ambitions to the national stage beyond the previous Tokyo assembly race.

Ishimaru said on April 25 that one candidate will run in the high-profile Tokyo constituency, while nine others will contest seats through the national proportional representation bloc.

As the surprise runner-up in last summer’s Tokyo gubernatorial race, he launched the Path to Rebirth in January with the initial goal of fielding up to 60 candidates in the capital’s assembly election in June.

Sources close to Ishimaru said the party aims to secure at least 2 percent of the vote in the Upper House election for proportional representation—the threshold required to gain official party status under Japan’s election law.

“Building the party’s presence is key to driving political reform,” the sources said.

While the party has identified “investment in education” as a key priority, it has not disclosed any comprehensive policy platform.

The 10 candidates for Upper House seats were selected from more than 1,100 applicants who responded to the party’s recruitment drive for the assembly election.

For the assembly race, the party is expected to field 45 candidates across 36 districts in the capital, where a total of 127 seats are up for grabs.

Ishimaru himself will not run in either of the elections. He previously suggested the possibility of running again in the 2028 Tokyo governor election. 

Despite his modest profile as the former mayor of Akitakata in Hiroshima Prefecture, Ishimaru garnered growing support during the Tokyo gubernatorial race, which was eventually won by incumbent Yuriko Koike.

His reformist message, combined with social media-driven campaigns, appeared to resonate particularly with younger generations disillusioned with the political establishment.

Local and national observers are closely watching whether his newcomer party can shake up Japan’s political landscape in the upcoming elections.

(This article was written by Eiichiro Nakamura and Naoki Nakayama.)

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