Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto attends a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo May 27, 2013. REUTERS/Yuya Shino
TOKYO (Reuters) - A potential ally for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's drive to revise the post-war, pacifist constitution – and one of Japan’s most colourful politicians – has said he'll leave politics after his party suffered defeat in a local referendum.
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, founder of Japan’s second largest opposition party and perhaps best known abroad for his 2013 comments that appeared to excuse Japan's "comfort women" system of wartime military brothels, said late on Sunday that he would leave politics when his term as mayor expires in December.
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