 Though in the past, he had held on to his South Korean nationality as an expression of his identity, and joined campaigns demanding suffrage for foreign residents, he naturalised for the express purpose of representing foreign residents and other minorities in local politics.If elected, he would have been Osaka's first ethnic Korean assembly member; he hoped that his campaign would provide an opportunity for Koreans who had taken up Japanese nationality to strengthen their ethnic identity and express it openly to the society at large.However, in the end, out of six candidates competing for five seats, he came in last, with only 2,543 votes out of 127,646 cast (compared to 19,475 for the fifth-place candidate).