NIIGATA – Niigata Gov. Hideyo Hanazumi won his third four-year term in Sunday’s gubernatorial election in the central Japan prefecture.
The 68-year-old governor was backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the prefectural chapter of the LDP’s coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, as well as the prefectural branches of the Democratic Party for the People and Komeito in the opposition camp.
Hanazumi, a native of the city of Sado in Niigata, defeated his two rivals — former Niigata prefectural assembly member Ryugo Tsuchida, 38, and Satoshi Annaka, 48, a former member of the municipal assembly of the Niigata city of Gosen. Tsuchida and Annaka also ran as independent candidates.
Hanazumi garnered 554,012 votes, against 230,721 votes for Tsuchida and 43,089 votes for Annaka. Voter turnout stood at 47.40%, down slightly from 49.64% in the previous Niigata gubernatorial election in 2022.
In his election campaign, Hanazumi emphasized his achievements during his past two terms totaling eight years, such as administrative and fiscal reforms in the prefectural government and the registration of the gold mines on Sado Island in the prefecture as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2024.
He pledged to enhance support measures for child-rearing families and the prefecture’s economic growth strategy.
The two rival candidates criticized the governor’s response over the restart of the No. 6 reactor at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings’ Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in the prefecture.
Hanazumi joined the then-Transport Ministry, now the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry, in 1982.
He then served as general affairs division chief at the Japan Tourism Agency, deputy governor of Niigata and deputy chief of the Japan Coast Guard before winning his first term as Niigata governor in the June 2018 election.
