Local elections were held Nov. 13 in Miyagi Prefecture and will be held Nov. 20 in Fukushima Prefecture. In Iwate Prefecture, local elections, including the gubernatorial and prefectural assembly elections, were held in September.
These elections — in areas hit by the March 11 earthquake/ tsunami or by the Fukushima nuclear power plant accidents — had been postponed from April by a special law.
In the town assembly election in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, the site of a nuclear power plant, three anti-nuclear power candidates won seats — two incumbent candidates from the Japan Communist Party and a newcomer independent candidate. In the prefectural assembly election, for the first time a JCP candidate was elected from Onagawa and from Ishinomaki, the site of a planned nuclear power plant.