Four-time poll loser eyes 16 more runs: paper

TOKYO (Reuters) - An eccentric 78-year-old inventor who was thwarted in his fourth attempt to become governor of Tokyo was undaunted, saying he plans to run 16 more times and will win by outliving his opponents, local media said Monday. "I'm going to live to 144, so I'm still only middle-aged. I can run for Tokyo governor 16 more times," the Sports Hochi newspaper quoted Yoshiro Nakamatsu as saying.

"In that time, all the others will die off, so I will be elected," added Nakamatsu, the self-proclaimed inventor of the floppy disk and the oldest candidate in the race. Nakamatsu came fifth in Sunday's election, which gave 74-year-old Shintaro Ishihara his third term as Tokyo governor.

Ishihara won 2.8 million votes, according to national broadcaster NHK's Web site, while Nakamatsu got 85,946, or 1.6 percent of the total.

Nakamatsu had promised to lower taxes and safeguard Tokyo's 12.6 million residents from missile attacks with an invention that would make North Korean missiles do a U-turn.

North Korea shocked Japan by test-firing a ballistic missile over Japanese territory in 1998, and last year Pyongyang jolted the region with a barrage of missile tests followed by its first nuclear test.