Campaigning for the Oct. 15 Nagano gubernatorial election got under way Thursday, with four newcomers registering their bids to succeed incumbent Gov. Goro Yoshimura, 74, who has announced he will not seek a sixth term.
The candidates are former Vice Gov. Fumitaka Ikeda, 58, award-winning novelist Yasuo Tanaka, 44, Shigeo Kusama, a 50-year-old former worker at a welfare facility, and Sanae Nakano, a 52-year-old hospital adviser supported by the Japanese Communist Party.
The election is widely seen as an exclusive contest between Ikeda -- nominated by Yoshimura as his successor and supported by various groups in the prefectural assembly -- and Tanaka, who is backed by citizens' groups and the Nagano chapter of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo).
Kicking off his campaign, Ikeda appeared in front of a Nagano hotel before about 800 supporters and pledged to improve infrastructure in the prefecture and foster local industries to cope with the information-technology revolution.