Yukiko Kada, who was elected governor of Shiga Prefecture on July 2.

Kyoto Seika University Professor Yukiko Kada is the fifth woman to be a governor after those in Osaka, Kumamoto, Chiba and Hokkaido Prefectures and the first for Shiga Prefecture.

She beat Kunimatsu, who sought a third four-year term with support from major parties and organized voters. Also in the race was labor union leader Yoshinori Tsuji, who was critical of Kunimatsu's eight years in office.

Kada was supported by the Social Democratic Party, and Tsuji by the Japanese Communist Party. Kada won 217,842 votes, compared with 185,344 for Kunimatsu and 70,110 for Tsuji.

Voter turnout was 44.94 percent, up from an all-time low of 38.67 percent in the last election.

Kada, underscoring the prefecture's poor fiscal health, blasted Kunimatsu's shinkansen and other big projects as a waste of money.

Kunimatsu had the backing of more than 200 organizations, including the local chapter of a labor union group supporting the Democratic Party of Japan, as well as the Liberal-Democratic Party, New Komeito and the DPJ.

The Japan Times Weekly: July 8, 2006
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