The election Sunday of Mr. Toru Hashimoto, a lawyer and TV personality, as the new governor of Osaka Prefecture, shows that the low-profile approach in the election campaign taken by the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito worked. The two parties tried to downplay the fact that the 38-year-old man was their candidate. Instead they tried to sell his freshness untarnished by their colors, especially to swing voters. Their national headquarters had their Osaka prefectural chapters play first fiddle in supporting him. This gave Mr. Hashimoto a free hand to take full advantage of his popularity as a TV personality. He will become the nation's youngest prefectural governor.
Mr. Hashimoto won big with 1,832,857 votes. Mr. Sadatoshi Kumagai, a former Osaka University Professor supported by the Democratic Party of Japan, the Social Democratic Party and People's New Party, took 999,082 votes. Mr. Shoji Umeda, a lawyer backed by the Japan Communist Party, took 518,563 votes.
The election results mean that a candidate supported by the ruling coalition won the first gubernatorial election in 33 years in which three candidates separately backed by major political parties competed.