Coalition-backed candidates win Osaka, Kyoto elections

Japan Policy & Politics, Feb 14, 2000

OSAKA, Feb. 7 Kyodo Candidates backed by parties of the central government's ruling coalition plus several opposition parties won a gubernatorial election in Osaka Prefecture and a mayoral election in Kyoto on Sunday, giving a much needed boost to Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's embattled tripartite coalition government.

In Osaka Prefecture, the nation's second-most populous prefecture, Fusae Ota, a former senior official of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, defeated her two main rivals to become Japan's first female governor.

In Japan's ancient capital of Kyoto, Mayor Yorikane Masumoto was reelected to a second term, beating a long-time contender backed by the Japanese Communist Party (JCP).

With all of the Osaka ballots counted, Ota garnered 1,380,583 votes, followed by Makoto Ajisaka with 1,020,483, and Tatsuto Hiraoka with 574,821. Seizo-Hideyoshi Hashiba, a businessman, collected 26,781 votes.

Voter turnout was 44.58%, down 8.66 percentage points from the previous election and a record low for an Osaka gubernatorial election, according to the prefectural election management committee. The past record was 49.68% in a 1991 election.

Ota, 48, was supported by all three parties of the central government's ruling coalition -- the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the Liberal Party (LP) and the New Komeito party -- as well as the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and the Reformers Network, a parliamentary ally of the New Komeito.

Ajisaka, a 66-year-old professor emeritus at Kansai University, was backed by the JCP. Hiraoka, 59, managing director of local private school group Seifu Gakuen, was endorsed by the LDP's Osaka prefectural chapter.

The LDP and the prefectural chapter fielded separate candidates after the latter rejected pressure from LDP headquarters in Tokyo to support Ota as the LDP favorite.

The election was held to fill the post vacated by Knock Yokoyama. The former governor resigned in December just prior to his indictment on charges he sexually molested a female campaign worker during the previous gubernatorial race last April.

In Kyoto, with all votes counted, Mayor Masumoto, 59, garnered 284,225 votes while his rival, Kichiro Inoue, 54, won 211,727 votes.

Sumimura Ninagawa, a hotel operator, collected 14,103 votes.

Voter turnout was 45.90%, up from the previous election's 41.59%.

Masumoto was jointly supported by six political parties, including the LDP, the LP, the New Koemito and the DPJ.

It was the second time Masumoto has defeated Inoue in a mayoral election in Kyoto. Inoue, a civic group leader, lost the last election four years ago by some 4,000 votes.

The election results broaden Obuchi's options over dissolving the House of Representatives for a snap election, political observers said.

Obuchi has reportedly been exploring the timing of dissolving the lower house, which must be done by mid-October when members' four-year term expires.

The election results are also likely to influence the ongoing Diet session, which the opposition camp -- the DPJ, JCP and Social Democratic Party -- has been boycotting since late last month to protest the ruling bloc's handling of a bill to reduce the number of seats in the lower chamber.

But with the pair of election victories, the ruling bloc is expected to continue its strong-arm tactics in the Diet, according to the observers.