Kohata elected Fukushima mayor

November 20, 2017

Fukushima- Hiroshi Kohata, 57, former regional chief of post-disaster reconstruction in Fukushima Prefecture, has been elected mayor of the capital of the northeast Japan prefecture.

In Sunday's mayoral election in the city of Fukushima, Kohata beat incumbent Kaoru Kobayashi, 58, and two other candidates, garnering 45,372 votes. Voter turnout stood at 47.92 pct.

Kohata, a native of Iitate in the prefecture, was backed by a supra-partisan group of city assembly members including those affiliating with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition Democratic Party and Social Democratic Party.

Kohata drew support from a wide range of voters by highlighting during the campaign period his expertise in administrative work and pledging to revitalize the regional economy and eliminate the waiting list for child nursery schools in the city.

After working at the Home Affairs Ministry, now the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, and serving as vice governor of Okayama Prefecture, Kohata became head of the Reconstruction Agency's Fukushima bureau in June 2016.

Kobayashi emphasized his achievements as Fukushima mayor and promised to create a city where residents can live long and healthy lives, but failed to win his second term.

In the previous mayoral race, the first of its kind since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s Fukushima No. 1 plant, Kobayashi trounced the then incumbent by vowing to turn Fukushima into an eco-friendly city without relying on nuclear energy.

Yoko Sakurada, 60, a former Fukushima prefectural assembly member, and Taiko Norii, 72, a nursery facility operator, also ran in the latest election. Jiji Press