Meet Ryokichi Kawashima. He's 94 years old, and lives in the suburbs of Tokyo.

But he's not just another one of Japan's 30 million or so elderly... he's running for office in this Sunday's parliamentary elections.

He said that after seeing what the other candidates were offering he thought "I could do better than that."

So he filed his documents, commandeered his family as his campaign staff, and emptied his savings.

Ironically, his campaign does not include any elderly specific platforms.

He's pushing an anti-nuclear and anti-nationalist stance.

But with about 1500 candidates running, he knows his chances of winning a seat are slim to none.

For now, he's just happy to have his name on the ticket.

Reuters TV reports.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.