Ichiro Ozawa, dubbed as kingpin of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), told reporters Thursday morning that he will run in the DPJ’s leadership election next month.

“I decided to run in the election as Prime Minister Hatoyama said he will give me full support,” the former DPJ secretary general told reporters after meeting with former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama in Tokyo.

Political pundits believe that Ozawa was the mastermind behind the DPJ’s historic ousting of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the general election last September and is sniffing around the DPJ leadership post as he is unhappy with the way Prime Minister Naoto Kan is running the government.

Kan failed to consolidate his party’s power in the recent upper house elections and conceded that his comments on tax hikes were largely to blame for the DPJ’s upper house election flop.

Ozawa stepped down as the DPJ’s No. 2 due to political fund scandals, but remains a widely influential figure within the ruling party. Kan has distanced himself from Ozawa.