Candidates backed by the regional party Osaka Ishin no Kai won the Osaka gubernatorial and Osaka city mayoral races on Sunday, according to preliminary results for the first leg of unified local elections compiled by The Yomiuri Shimbun.
Former Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura won the gubernatorial election and former Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui won the Osaka mayoral election, with both defeating candidates backed by the ruling coalition.
Both stepped down early to run for each other's posts in a double election, aiming to realize their vision of abolishing the ordinance-designated city of Osaka and reorganizing the city's current wards into special wards, a system modeled on Tokyo.
"We want to make steady progress [toward our vision] while listening to those opposed to it," Matsui said at a press conference.
In Hokkaido, Naomichi Suzuki -- a former mayor of Yubari supported by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner Komeito -- defeated the opposition-backed Tomohiro Ishikawa, a former House of Representatives lawmaker.
A total of 11 gubernatorial elections were held, with incumbents winning reelection in Kanagawa, Mie, Nara, Tottori, Fukuoka and Oita prefectures.
In addition to Osaka, five other mayoral polls were held in the ordinance-designated cities of Sapporo, Sagamihara, Shizuoka, Hamamatsu and Hiroshima, along with assembly elections in 41 prefectures and 17 ordinance-designated cities.
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