Hiroshima Mayor Akiba not to seek another term in April`s election+

HIROSHIMA, Jan. 4 Kyodo -
Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba, a strong proponent of global nuclear
disarmament now in his third term as mayor, said Tuesday he will not seek
reelection in the mayoral race slated for April 10.
Having expressed a strong interest in hosting the 2020 Summer Olympic Games and
support for U.S. President Barack Obama's vision of a world without nuclear
weapons, he was thought to have been willing to seek a fourth term.
But the 68-year-old mayor was also facing a growing criticism over seeking a
fourth four-year term in the office, which he has held since 1999.
''I will put a period to my mayoral job when my term ends in April,'' Akiba
said in remarks to senior city officials. He said he wants ''a new person with
a passion to take over'' the job.
Before becoming mayor of the western Japanese city, which was hit by a U.S.
atomic bomb in 1945, he had been a university professor and a House of
Representatives lawmaker.
Akiba was one of the recipients of the 2010 Ramon Magsaysay Award, considered
the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize, for his role in the global
campaign to abolish nuclear weapons.
Three rookies have expressed their candidacies for the April mayoral election,
including Kunio Ohara, 61, a former member of the Hiroshima municipal assembly.
Neither the ruling Democratic Party of Japan nor the main opposition Liberal
Democratic Party has decided on a candidate of its own.
==Kyodo