Candidates from the ruling bloc won three of the four Diet by-elections held Sunday, while the Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition force, retained a Tokyo-constituency Lower House seat left vacant by the assassination of a DPJ lawmaker last fall, final results showed Monday.
Yoko Komiyama, 54, of the DPJ, received 99,600 votes to the 57,783 for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Michio Ochi, 74, in Tokyo's No. 6 constituency, according to the final vote tally announced by the local election board.
The DPJ campaigned hard to hang on to the Tokyo seat, left open after the fatal stabbing of DPJ Lower House member Koki Ishii by a rightist in October.