In a closely fought race, Yasutomo Suzuki, the four-time mayor of Hamamatsu city, was elected on Sunday as the next governor of Shizuoka Prefecture, defeating the ruling Liberal Democratic Party-backed candidate, Shinichi Omura, by a margin of 5, 1%. , or 77,487 votes.
The 66-year-old’s victory could pave the way for restarting the magnetic levitation train line project, which had been postponed due to opposition from his predecessor, and comes as another blow to the LDP after opposition-backed candidates all three had won the House of Representatives by elections last month.
Suzuki, who is set to become Shizuoka’s first new governor in 15 years, was jointly endorsed by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the People’s Democratic Party. Both Suzuki and Omura supported the maglev project and offered little policy difference.
