9 Gubernatorial Races, Other Polls to Be Held Sunday

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:19 JST, April 8, 2023

Voting and ballot counting for some races in unified local elections will be held on Sunday. Further elections will be held on April 23.

Candidates made last-minute appeals to voters on Saturday, particularly focusing on childcare support and measures to combat rising prices.

Gubernatorial elections will be held in nine prefectures: Hokkaido, Kanagawa, Fukui, Osaka, Nara, Tottori, Shimane, Tokushima and Oita.

Mayoral elections will be held in six government ordinance-designated cities: Sapporo, Sagamihara, Shizuoka, Hamamatsu, Osaka and Hiroshima.

In Osaka, there will be elections for both prefectural governor and city mayor. In both races, candidates of regional political party Osaka Ishin will face those fielded by a political group seeking to unite “non-Ishin” forces, among other contestants.

In Nara Prefecture, the Liberal Democratic Party was unable to agree on a single candidate, which will likely result in a split in conservative votes. The LDP’s Nara prefectural chapter has recommended a former bureaucrat of the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, while some members are separately backing the incumbent, who is seeking a fifth term in office. Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) has also endorsed a candidate.

In Tokushima Prefecture, the LDP prefectural chapter is supporting the incumbent, who is seeking a sixth term in office, while two former LDP lawmakers — one from the House of Representatives and the other from the House of Councillors — are also among the candidates, for a total of three LDP-affiliated candidates in the contest for governor.

Also on Sunday, voting and ballot counting for elections for 41 prefectural assemblies with a total of 2,260 seats, as well as of 17 ordinance-designated city assemblies with a total of 1,005 seats, will take place.