Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama acknowledged that his party's political money scandals affected Sunday's gubernatorial race in Nagasaki Prefecture, where the ruling Democratic Party of Japan-backed candidate lost.
"It should be said that scandals on 'politics and money' influenced the outcome," Hatoyama told reporters Monday. The result "will be taken with sincerity," he said.
Former Nagasaki Vice Gov. Hodo Nakamura, supported by the opposition Liberal Democratic Party and the New Komeito, defeated DPJ-backed former bureaucrat Tsuyoshi Hashimoto and five others.