Japan held nationwide local elections yesterday, partially seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to boost the nation’s economy with upper house elections due next year.
Polls opened at 7am and closed at 8pm in the first set of two rounds of local elections, with voters casting ballots to elect governors in 10 prefectures and mayors in five government-designated major cities, as well as assembly members in 41 of the 47 prefectures and in 17 of the 20 major cities.
The second round of polling on April 26 is to elect mayors and city assembly members in other areas.
Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) regards the polls as a litmus test to evaluate his drive to resuscitate Japan’s fortunes, dubbed “Abenomics.”
The campaign has also focused on the country’s energy sources and the future of nuclear power, particularly in gubernatorial races in Fukui and Shimane prefectures, both of which host nuclear power plants.
The once nuclear-dependent country is now skeptical of the technology, with voters badly scarred by the disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, where reactors went into meltdown after their cooling systems were swamped by a tsunami in 2011.
As results began to trickle in last night, the governors of Hokkaido and Oita prefectures, running as independents, but backed by the LDP and its coalition ally, Komeito, were cruising toward fourth terms in the only races where the ruling and opposition parties were going head-to-head at the prefectural level.
Hokkaido Governor Harumi Takahashi, a 61-year-old independent, appeared on course to beat Noriyuki Sato, 65, a former television anchor running as an independent, but backed by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and other opposition parties, a Kyodo News forecast showed.
Oita Governor Katsusada Hirose, 72, appeared to have a lead over former Oita mayor Ban Kugimiya, 67, another independent backed by the DPJ, Kyodo said.
A victory by Takahashi would give boost Abe’s administration on nuclear and agricultural policy because he has been ambiguous on these issues, while his rival Sato is an opponent of reactor restarts and the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade pact.
The outcome of the polls is being closely watched because the LDP has failed to win strong support in recent gubernatorial contests.
Pundits are waiting to see if the LDP can secure a majority of the 2,284 seats being contested in the 41 prefectural assembly elections and whether the DPJ can retain its 314 pre-election seats.
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