Aichi Governor Hideaki Omura has decided to run for a fifth term in the prefectural election set for campaigning to start on January 21 and voting on February 7, aiming to keep steering the prefecture through the Linear Chuo Shinkansen project and its bid to serve as a backup capital in a major disaster, The Asahi Shimbun reported.
Omura, 66, intends to keep leading the prefecture toward industrial promotion tied to the opening of the maglev Linear Chuo Shinkansen between Tokyo and Nagoya. He also wants Aichi designated as a backup capital that could take over capital functions if a large-scale disaster strikes.
A fifth term would be the first in Aichi since the late Mikine Kuwahara, who served six terms from 1951 to 1975. According to the National Governors Association, incumbent governors in six terms include Tomikazu Fukuda of Tochigi and Yoshihiro Murai of Miyagi, while four governors are in their fifth terms.
Omura kept his intentions quiet through the year. He stressed his commitment to the Asian and Asian Para Games held in the fall, and on the 9th, when he received a request to run from groups including the Aichi Prefectural Association of Town and Village Mayors, he said only that he wanted to tackle immediate issues.
According to people involved, Omura dined with Liberal Democratic Party figures after the Para Games ended and began seriously considering a run. He is expected to declare formally in December while answering a representative question from the LDP prefectural assembly caucus, the chamber's largest.
A fifth term and the record behind it
The decision puts the length of his tenure at the center of the race. Four terms have already given Omura a long record in office, and a fifth would extend it past any Aichi governor since Kuwahara.
Tax Reduction Japan, the party led by Takashi Kawamura, plans to field its own candidate in the Aichi race.