Yasuo Tanaka, an award-winning novelist, said Tuesday he will run in October's gubernatorial election in Nagano Prefecture.
"I am prepared to work along with the residents of Nagano Prefecture," Tanaka, 44, told Kyodo News, adding that he will formally announce his candidacy Sept. 7.
Tanaka has been urged by local business leaders and intellectuals to enter the Oct. 15 election in an attempt to challenge the traditional succession process, in which an incumbent governor handpicks his successor.
Nagano Gov. Goro Yoshimura, 74, selected former Vice Gov. Fumitaka Ikeda, 58, as his preferred successor. An Ikeda victory had seemed almost certain, after all political groups in the prefectural assembly, except the Japanese Communist Party, and more than 80 percent of mayors, towns and villages in the prefecture expressed support for him.