Matsukata easily wins Miyazaki gubernatorial election

Japan Policy & Politics, July 26, 1999

MIYAZAKI, Japan, July 19 Kyodo

Incumbent Miyazaki Gov. Suketaka Matsukata won his sixth term of office in Sunday's gubernatorial election, easily defeating five challengers. Matsukata, the oldest sitting governor in Japan at 81, garnered 225,193 votes against 109,251 for Tadahiro Ando, 58, a former prefectural government official, 80,946 for Satoru Kudo, 64, a former chairman of the prefectural assembly, 64,864 for Mitsuhiro Toyama, 59, a former deputy chairman of the assembly, 22,719 for Makoto Sato, 60, a local leader of the Japanese Communist Party, and 2,013 for Taro Nihon, 58, an organization official. Voter turnout was 56.08%, up 8.98 percentage points from the previous election in 1995 and the highest turnout of the last five elections here. Matsukata had the support of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Party of Japan, the New Komeito party and the Social Democratic Party. The likely selection of Miyazaki Prefecture as the site of next year's foreign ministers meeting of the Group of Eight (G-8) countries worked in Matsukata's favor, according to political sources. The meeting is scheduled to be held before the summit talks in Okinawa Prefecture on July 21-23, 2000. "We will tackle the preparation for the meeting in earnest and would like to hand down this wonderful prefecture of Miyazaki to succeeding generations in the 21st century," Matsukata said after his victory was announced.