Japanese ruling party drops disabled author Ototake as candidate over affair

The governing Liberal Democratic Party has decided to forgo fielding disabled celebrity author Hirotada Ototake in the upper house election this summer after revelations he committed adultery, a party executive said on Wednesday.

Ototake, who was born without limbs, has acknowledged adultery allegations made recently by the weekly Shukan Shincho magazine and apologised on his official website.

The LDP had considered Ototake, 39, as a candidate for the House of Councillors election from the Tokyo constituency. The party saw him as a candidate who could exemplify Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s goal of creating a “society in which all 100 million people in the nation can play active roles”.

Since the best-selling success of his 1998 autobiography Gotai Fumanzoku (No One’s Perfect), Ototake has often appeared on TV, making humorous comments about obstacles that disabled people face.