Nishiwaki elected Kyoto governor

April 9, 2018

Kyoto- Takatoshi Nishiwaki, former administrative vice minister of the Reconstruction Agency, was elected governor of Kyoto Prefecture, western Japan, on Sunday in a race to pick a successor to the outgoing leader who has served for 16 years.

In a one-on-one contest, Nishiwaki, a 62-year-old independent, defeated Kazuhito Fukuyama, a 57-year-old lawyer who also ran as an independent. Nishiwaki will succeed Keiji Yamada, 64, who decided to retire without seeking a fifth four-year term.

Nishiwaki garnered 402,672 votes, against 317,617 votes for Fukuyama, the prefectural election board said.

Voter turnout came to 35.17 pct, the second lowest for a gubernatorial election in the prefecture, it said.

Nishiwaki was supported by the national ruling coalition of Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, as well as three opposition parties--the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Party of Hope and the Democratic Party. Fukuyama was backed by the Japanese Communist Party.

In the election campaign, Nishiwaki pledged to continue and advance Yamada's policies in prefectural administration and highlighted his own administrative experience in the central government.

He received support from more than 2,000 organizations in Kyoto.

Fukuyama sought electoral support for his proposal to expand free education and opposition to nuclear reactor restarts, but failed to gather enough votes. Jiji Press