 Higashikokubaru ran in the Tokyo gubernatorial election on April 10, 2011, in which he lost to incumbent governor Shintarō Ishihara.Both Higashikokubaru and Ishihara ran as proportional representation candidates for the Japan Restoration Party in the December 2012 general election for the House of Representatives.Higashikokubaru resigned from the JRP in December 2013 stating that "the political ideology and policies of the Japan Restoration Party as well as their directions have changed and they are now far different from mine."