Morita elected Chiba governor in DPJ setback

Monday 30th March, 05:37 AM JST

CHIBA —

Independent Kensaku Morita won a resounding victory in Sunday’s Chiba gubernatorial election over four other candidates, including one supported by the Democratic Party of Japan, in a major setback for the main opposition party. Morita, 59, an actor and former House of Representatives member from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, garnered 1,015,978 votes compared to 636,991 for Taira Yoshida, 49, the DPJ-recommended candidate.

‘‘I’d like to create a cool Chiba Prefecture that can talk straightforwardly to the central government,’’ Morita told his supporters Sunday night in declaring victory, four years after narrowly failing to become governor of the prefecture neighboring Tokyo. Morita was backed by about half the LDP members in the Chiba prefectural assembly. Voter turnout was 45.56%, up 2.28 percentage points from the previous election in 2005, which saw Morita lose to outgoing Gov Akiko Domoto, 76, by about 6,000 votes.

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Latest 15 of 21 Total Comments Show All

john113 at 01:39 PM JST - 30th March

Morita is a rightwing nationalist who favors whitewashing Japan's past atrocities.

Please be specific. What exact phrases did he state?
plasticmonkey at 01:55 PM JST - 30th March

He stands for the "elimination of the masochistic view of Japanese history". If you've been here long enough, you will know what this means. Most Japanese know where he stands, but few seem to care.
timorborder at 02:34 PM JST - 30th March

Another recylced politician/actor. Only in Japan does a soufle rise twice.
930148mike at 04:58 PM JST - 30th March

Mr Kensaku Morita (the supposedly 'independent' candidate who is strongly backed by the LDP) won the Chiba gubernatorial election by a wide margin over four other candidates, including Mr Taira Yoshida, the DPJ-backed candidate. Mr Morita won in a virtual landslide, receiving 1,015,978 votes - 378,987 more than Mr Yoshida's total of 636,991 votes - a crushing margin of almost 60%. This is the clearest indication yet of public displeasure with the DPJ and with Mr Ichiro Ozawa's continuing leadership of the party. Electors in the densely-populated districts of Tokyo have rejected the DPJ, causing it to seriously re-evaluate itself. DPJ Secretary-General Mr Yukio Hatoyama released a humiliating apology to party supporters for the electoral debacle. Faced with such overwhelming evidence of his personal unpopularity, Mr Ozawa may be forced to bow to hostile public opinion and hand over the DPJ leadership to a scandal-free successor, possibly Mr Katsuya Okada. The DPJ, at most, has only six months before the next General Election to clean up its image and recapture its former public appeal. The voters of Chiba have spoken. It remains to be seen whether the DPJ can listen and learn.
Patrick Smash at 08:06 PM JST - 30th March

What's cool about talking to central government? Fortunately Chiba doesn't really need a governor and this guy is hardly Arnie. Yet more tax money down the pan no doubt.
GW at 09:48 PM JST - 30th March

it says he is ex LDP..........yeah right
Shumatsu_Samurai at 10:09 PM JST - 30th March

GW, clearly you're the only person here that doesn't know that it's common for candidates for governor positions to stand as "independents". Everyone know who they're backed by, though - there's no conspiracy.

This election is a clear snub to the DPJ and Ozawa. They were tipped to win until the expenses scandal broke. It's very simple, he needs to go and go now. The longer he delays in a selfish attempt to cling on, the less time the DPJ will have to select a new leader and the less time his successor will have to put themselves across as a credible alternative to the LDP.

Can't Ozawa do the right thing, just this once?
GW at 12:46 AM JST - 31st March

shumatsu

pls point out where I mentioned any conspiracy stuff, shudnt be hard my previous post was quite short, you need to learn the diff between conspiracies & snide comments me thinks, rather knows!

as for doing the right thing, clearly you must be pretty new to these shores, politicians in Jpn NEVER do the right thing, & they are all guilty of accepting bribes & taking k/b etc, hell I bet Ozawa has been getting the yen from the same places since way back when he was still in the LDP
ZazoomZa at 02:13 AM JST - 31st March

he looked more than just euphoric on the news, I ithought he was going to have a heart attack
TokyoHustla at 04:59 AM JST - 31st March

Ozawa has been getting the yen from the same places since way back when he was still in the LDP

Heck of an accusation. Have any evidence to back it up?
GW at 06:43 PM JST - 31st March

TH

hardly a "heck of an accuzation", care to prove me wrong
TokyoHustla at 02:08 AM JST - 1st April

GW, I take it there's no evidence.

Claim dismissed.
GW at 09:52 AM JST - 1st April

TH

ha ha ha, next thing you`ll be telling us how clean J-politicians are & how they are all above board!
European1 at 11:31 PM JST - 5th April

Looks like Ishihara's got a friend next door.

this is why they showed them together on JTV after elections. Ishihara, our friend who loves foreigners were congratulating Morita
European1 at 11:31 PM JST - 5th April

by the way, tarentos run this country, though Osaka Gov is good I think, now Chiba have ex-tarento too