Takashi Kawamura's landslide win April 26 in the Nagoya mayoral poll was a much-needed boost for the Democratic Party of Japan, whose image and reputation were badly damaged by the arrest in March of President Ichiro Ozawa's chief secretary over shady political donations.

Kawamura, 60, a former DPJ Lower House member, ran as an independent with DPJ support.

He garnered 514,514 votes, nearly double the number cast for the runner-up, Masahiko Hosokawa, 54, a former trade ministry bureaucrat backed by the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc.

Although he was considered the front-runner, Kawamura's win was all the more welcome given that two DPJ-backed candidates recently lost the Akita and Chiba gubernatorial elections.

Those setbacks were at least partly attributed to Ozawa's dubious ties with Nishimatsu Construction Co., the company at the center of alleged illegal donations.