Governor Yuzaki secures second four-year term

Hiroshima Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki secured a second four-year term in yesterday’s prefecture wide election.

The 48 year old Yuzaki beat the only challenger, Osamu Onishi, a senior member of the Japanese Communist Party’s Hiroshima chapter, handily.

The incumbent secured a whopping 88% (source)of the underwhelming 31.97% (source) of the 2,299,697 eligible voters (source) who turned out to vote (1). It was the 3rd lowest turnout to a Hiroshima gubernatorial election ever recorded.

Yuzaki ran as an independent in 2009, but was backed by the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the Democratic Party of Japan this time around.

The man behind the “Doctor Heli” flying doctor service and the Oshii! Hiroshima (Hiroshima, nice but no cigar!) tourism campaign ran, ”pledging to continue promoting employment and economic development in the region”. Onishi, on the other hand, claimed that only a select group of companies had benefited from the prefectures investment fund, laid heavy emphasis on welfare issues and opposed scheduled increases in sales tax.

(1) These figures don’t seem to add up – perhaps these figures are not complete or the number of eligible voters reported in Chugoku Shinbun is not correct.