2007 Japanese unified local elections

The 16th unified local elections in

Elections on April 8

• Gubernatorial elections in
  • Hokkaidō: Governor Harumi Takahashi is reelected for a second term with centre-right support against centre-left candidate Satoshi Arai and a JCP candidate.
  • Iwate: In Ichirō Ozawa's home prefecture, Democrat Takuya Tasso beats four candidates in the race to succeed retiring three-term governor Hiroya Masuda.
  • Shintarō Ishihara
    wins a third term.
  • Kanagawa: Governor Shigefumi Matsuzawa (former Democratic Diet member) is reelected.
  • Fukui: With broad support from non-Communist parties, governor Issei Nishikawa wins a second term.
  • Mie: With broad support from non-Communist parties, governor Akihiko Noro wins a second term.
  • Nara: Supported by the centre-right parties, but with only one other Communist candidate, Shōgo Arai is elected to succeed retiring incumbent Yoshiya Kakimoto
  • Tottori: Centre-right supported former vice governor Shinji Hirai wins the election against only one Communist challenger and succeeds retiring Yoshihiro Katayama.
  • Shimane: With centre-right support Zenbē Mizoguchi beats his only rival candidate, a Communist, to follow retiring Nobuyoshi Sumita as governor.
  • Tokushima: Governor Kamon Iizumi wins reelection against only one Communist candidate.
  • Fukuoka: Three-term incumbent Wataru Asō beats centre-left supported Shūji Inatomi and a Communist.
  • Saga: Governor Yasushi Furukawa defeats his Communist challenger to win a second term.
  • Ōita: Incumbent Katsusada Hirose wins reelection against only one Communist candidate.
• Assembly elections in all prefectures with the exceptions of Ibaraki, Tokyo and Okinawa. In the national aggregate, the Liberal Democratic Party receives 38.4% of the vote, winning 1212 of the 2544 seats. The Democratic Party increases its nationwide vote share to 16.4% and now has 375 prefectural assembly members; in Iwate, it becomes strongest party in a prefectural assembly for the first time. The number of women elected reaches a new record high at 190 of 2544.
• Mayoral elections in
  • Sapporo, Hokkaidō: Centre-left-supported Fumio Ueda is reelected for a second term.
  • Shizuoka, Shizuoka: Zenkichi Kojima (two terms in office since the elevation to designated city, but before that mayor of the pre-merger Shizuoka since 1994) is reelected
  • Hamamatsu, Shizuoka: Former Democratic Diet member Yasutomo Suzuki beats incumbent mayor Yasuyuki Kitawaki (also a former Democrat) by a margin of twelve thousand votes.
  • Hiroshima, Hiroshima: Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba beats former Liberal Democratic Diet member Takeaki Kashimura and two other candidates to win a third term in office.
• Assembly elections in all designated cities except for Shizuoka and Kitakyūshū. In Kawasaki and Nagoya, the Democratic Party wins a plurality of seats, in Sakai the Kōmeitō, in all other cities the LDP is strongest party, though "independents" often form the majority.

Elections on April 22

• By-elections for the national Diet: House of Councillors, Fukushima and Okinawa
• Mayoral elections in 96 cities, 13 special wards and many towns and villages
• Assembly elections in hundreds of municipalities, including 21 special wards

Elections with national media coverage included the mayoral races in five prefectural capitals (Mito, Ibaraki; Takamatsu, Kagawa; Matsuyama, Ehima; Nagasaki, Nagasaki: Tomihisa Taue won the election to succeed assassinated mayor Itchō Itō; Ōita, Ōita), in the bankrupt city of Yūbari, Hokkaidō, and in Tōyō, Kōchi where an opponent of a planned site for highly radioactive waste won the election.

The House of Councillors by-elections were won by one LDP-Kōmeitō supported candidate (

• Yomiuri Shimbun: 2007 unified local elections (in Japanese)