SENDAI—Yoshihiro Murai defeated four challengers and overcame a campaign of misinformation and anti-foreigner sentiment to secure a record-breaking sixth term as Miyagi Prefecture’s governor on Oct. 26.

Murai, a 65-year-old independent, garnered 340,190 votes, narrowly holding off Masamune Wada, 51, a former Upper House member of the Liberal Democratic Party, who received 324,375 votes.

Voter turnout was 46.50 percent, down from 56.29 percent in the previous election four years ago.

Wada, who also ran as an independent, received the full backing of the far-right Sanseito party and expanded his support, primarily in urban areas and among younger voters.

At 11:25 p.m., when news broke that Murai’s victory was certain, cheers erupted among supporters at his campaign office in Sendai’s Aoba Ward.

“It was an extremely difficult election, but once it’s over, there are no sides,” he said amid chants and applause. “I want to work hard for the next four years to be able to hand over the reins in the best possible shape.”

Murai led recovery efforts following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. He also served as chairman of the National Governors’ Association.

He won the previous five gubernatorial elections in fairly smooth fashion. But this time, he faced a tough battle, trying to counter criticism about his long tenure and also having to “extinguish fires” from false rumors and other misinformation about him that spread on social media.

He solidified support from his original political base, the LDP prefectural caucus, as well as from prefectural assembly members belonging to Komeito and Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party).

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Murai’s senior at the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management, sent him a message of support and may have pushed conservative voters to his side.

At Wada’s campaign office also in Aoba Ward, supporters let out groans of disappointment when television broadcasts projected his defeat.

Biting his lip, Wada said, “Despite all the support I received from everyone, in the end, I was unable to win.”

Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya released a statement that night.

“I feel it was significant that we expanded our support through grass-roots activities and pushed the incumbent to the brink,” he said.

SANSEITO’S PUSH FOR A FOOTHOLD

Sanseito did not officially endorse Wada and told its members to vote independently. However, as support for Wada grew, Sanseito began to show signs of “unequivocal support.”

Kamiya and other Sanseito Diet members, including Sayaka Shioiri, 43, traveled to Miyagi Prefecture to support Wada’s campaign.

Kamiya delivered five stump speeches in Sendai before and after the official campaign kicked off. Crowds of around 1,000 people gathered each time, creating a high-energy turnout in the city center.

Kamiya positioned the Miyagi election as “the first gubernatorial election that Sanseito will seriously support.”

He had frequently hinted that he would enter the gubernatorial elections scheduled for next year in Hokkaido and Okinawa Prefecture.

“This will be a chance to change national politics,” Kamiya said in a stump speech in central Sendai on Oct. 25, the final day of the Miyagi election campaign. “Sanseito and Wada will work together. We will make changes at the national level, and we’ll have Wada make changes in Miyagi. The turning point is just around the corner.”

Wada is often mistaken for a Miyagi local because his given name, Masamune, is the same as Date Masamune (1567-1636), the legendary one-eyed warrior and feudal lord who controlled the region.

However, Wada, in fact, is a Tokyo native and former Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) announcer with no strong local base.

WATER UTILITY FEUD

One reason Sanseito targeted Miyagi Prefecture was the party’s feud with Murai that had been simmering since the Upper House election in July.

During that election campaign, Kamiya seized on Miyagi Prefecture’s sale of operating rights for its water utility to a joint venture of 10 private companies, including one foreign-owned firm.

Kamiya criticized the prefecture for having “sold it to foreign capital.”

Governor Murai protested Kamiya’s statement, pointing out that the majority shareholder in the joint venture is a domestic company and that the prefecture retains final responsibility.

But Kamiya did not back down. “Let’s settle this in the election,” he declared.

COMMON INTERESTS

Although Kamiya in early September announced that Sanseito was considering fielding its own candidate in the Miyagi gubernatorial election, several local Sanseito members had asked Wada to run after he lost his seat in the Upper House election in July.

To avoid splitting the conservative vote, the two camps decided to unify behind Wada.

At that time, Wada was still in the LDP, drawing a sense of concern among Sanseito members.

Kamiya held a public debate between Sanseito executives and Wada, appealing to the party’s base by highlighting their policy similarities.

With their similar policies, Kamiya and Wada became allies under the principle of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

The two then launched a multi-pronged critique of the incumbent.

BURIAL PLOT CONTROVERSY

One issue raised in the election was the development of cemeteries that would allow for burials instead of the traditional Japanese method of cremation.

Murai has promoted the acceptance of talented foreign workers in the prefecture and acknowledged the possibility that an increasing number of non-Japanese may wish not to be cremated for religious reasons.

He stated in the prefectural assembly in October last year that he would consider developing burial plots in the prefecture.

However, this proposal was met with a flood of opposition from within and outside the prefecture, mainly from people worried about an increasing number of foreigners and perceived favoritism toward them.

Mayors of the prefecture’s municipalities, who hold the authority to grant permits for cemeteries, also showed reluctance.

Just before the gubernatorial election campaign started in September, Murai abruptly announced a complete reversal, stating, “It will not happen while I am governor.”

But Wada’s camp continued to press the issue.

He brought up the prefecture’s introduction of a lodging tax, which was withdrawn in 2020 and later re-proposed.

“If Murai is elected, there’s a possibility he’ll just go ahead with the burials after all,” Wada said.

In reality, the lodging tax was temporarily withdrawn to prioritize COVID-19 measures. Unlike the burial plot issue, the lodging tax plan itself was never abandoned.

Echoing Kamiya’s stance and reflecting Sanseito’s “Japanese First” platform, Wada criticized the water utility sale involving the foreign-owned company.

“If our countries come into conflict, the water might stop flowing,” he said.

Wada also called for a halt to mega-solar construction projects by private companies.

Although Murai had also clearly stated his opposition to such solar farm projects, disinformation spread online claiming that “Murai is promoting mega solar.”

The misinformation spread so widely that Murai said on social media on Oct. 20, late in the campaign, that he was consulting a lawyer about taking legal action against what he called “factually baseless slander seen online.”

FACT-CHECKING ORGANIZATION

After the election Murai said he “suffered from false information during the election campaign.”

At a news conference on Oct. 27, the governor said he instructed prefectural officials to consider establishing a neutral organization to fact-check information circulating during elections.

“During the election, an individual’s campaign office cannot handle false information,” he said. “Responding after the election is over is too late because the results are already out.”

(This article was written by Ryo Oyama, Ikuko Abe and Megumi Kishi.)