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Peru's Fujimori to run for seat in Japanese parliament

Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori is a "Last Samurai" with extraordinary skills who can help Japan, the Japanese party that will field him as a candidate for an upper house election next month said yesterday.

Fujimori announced his surprise candidacy overnight in Chile, where he is under house arrest awaiting a court ruling in an extradition case. Peru wants him sent to Lima for alleged embezzlement and human rights abuses during his 1990-2000 rule.

"I'm counting on Mr Fujimori as a `Last Samurai' to put vigor into Japanese society," Shizuka Kamei, acting head of the tiny New People's Party, told a news conference.

Kamei said Fujimori -- who joined the news conference by phone from Santiago -- can make use of his broad connections built during his time as leader of Peru.

Fujimori has dual Peruvian-Japanese citizenship as his parents were born in Japan, so is eligible to run for the July 29 election in absentia, a Japanese official said.

It remains unclear whether an electoral win would affect Fujimori's extradition case, but a Peruvian official last week said the bid was a desperate attempt by the former leader to avoid being sent to Lima.

In an interview with The Associated Press late on Wednesday, Fujimori said the extradition efforts would not stop him from running in the election.

"I am confident because I worked in a proper manner. There is no evidence of any guilt, I am innocent," the 68-year old former authoritarian leader said.

The former president said that as a lawmaker in Japan he could help the country with issues such as relations with North Korea, but made it clear that he still had political ambitions in Peru.

"I've decided to run for the Japanese Parliament because I am convinced I may contribute to tackle serious problems we have in Japan," he said, adding that he accepted the Japanese party's offer "because we do not have a presidential election in Peru soon."

Fujimori said "party members are convinced that the style, the dynamics of my government in solving problems can be transferred to some specific problems in Japan."

The New People's Party plans to ask the Japanese government to help ensure Fujimori can engage in electoral activities, and request Chile allow him to return, party leader Shizuka Kamei said.

No regulations under Japan's Public Offices Election Law prohibit a candidate under house arrest overseas from running in an election in Japan, Internal Affairs Ministry official Tetsuya Kikuchi said.

Government spokesman Yasuhisa Shiozaki told reporters he had not yet confirmed Fujimori's plans, but that Tokyo planned to "watch closely" the legal proceedings being carried out in Chile, he added.
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