After months of hemming and hawing, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara has officially announced his bid for re-election, ending speculation that he might return to national politics. His solid popularity makes it almost certain that he will win a second four-year term in the April 13 election. So far only one other person, Yoshiharu Wakabayashi, the head of the Japan Communist Party's Tokyo chapter, has announced his candidacy. The Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition group, is said to be considering whether to put up its own candidate.

Mr. Ishihara, who quit the Diet in 1995 after 25 years as a veteran Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker, won a smashing victory for the 1999 Tokyo governorship. During his first term, vowing to "change Japan from Tokyo onward," he has taken a number of aggressive -- and controversial -- measures, such as levying a surtax on large banks operating in Tokyo.

All the while, however, the possibility has persisted that he might re-enter the national political arena by launching a new party. He has been, and still is, seen by many as a prospective prime minister -- a perception that seems to reflect the deep public mistrust of existing political parties and of current Diet members in general. That possibility has disappeared for now. But it will likely revive in the future, depending on how the political situation develops -- a question that is closely related to the timing of the next Lower House election.