[3] He served at one point as the Mainichi correspondent in Tehran, and traveled to the front lines of the Iran–Iraq War in 1984, becoming the only Japanese journalist to do so.

[3] Torigoe was diagnosed with stage IV colorectal cancer in 2005 and underwent several years of treatment, including four operations.

[4] Torigoe became active in the opposition to collective security legislation in 2015 and took part in demonstrations at the National Diet Building.

[2] Shortly following the July 2016 upper house election, in which pro-constitutional amendment parties secured a two-thirds supermajority in both houses of the Diet, Torigoe declared his candidacy for the Tokyo gubernatorial election with the support of the Democratic Party.

[2] Kenji Utsunomiya, who ran with DPJ support in the 2014 gubernatorial election, withdrew one day before the start of the campaign in order to boost Torigoe's chances against pro-establishment rivals Hiroya Masuda and Yuriko Koike.