Mrs. Fusae Ota, a former official of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, won in Sunday's gubernatorial election of Osaka Prefecture, riding on the strength of the joint support of major political parties. The media have highlighted the fact that she is the nation's first female prefectural governor. This is indeed worthy of note in this so-called male-dominated country, but with women already active in central and local administrations and assemblies, the gender of the winner, it seems, should not be the real focus of political attention.

The crux is the fact that Mr. Makoto Ajisawa, a university professor who was backed by the Japan Communist Party alone, pulled so close to Mrs. Ota, the candidate for whom the three coalition parties -- the Liberal Democratic Party, the Liberal Party and New Komeito -- and the Democratic Party of Japan, the biggest opposition party, joined forces to support. Mrs. Ota won 1,380,583 votes against the 1,020,483 garnered by Mr. Ajisawa -- a margin of 360,1000.

To many observers, this gap must have been smaller than anticipated, given the joint support extended to Mrs. Ota by the major political parties. Uninformed people here and abroad might have been surprised at results showing that the Communists can single-handedly put on such an electoral performance in the world's second-largest capitalist country. Sunday's election results will hardly have provided the nation's ruling-party leaders with sufficient comfort and confidence.