A day after emerging victorious in Sunday's Chiba gubernatorial election, Akiko Domoto expressed satisfaction that her win was secured through a purely citizen-oriented campaign.
The former House of Councilors member ran the race -- widely viewed as a bellwether for the July Upper House election -- without party support.
"(What started as) campaigning in small areas came to form a vortex. The main players were citizens, women, youth and the elderly," the 68-year-old Domoto told reporters Monday in summing up her win, which will make her the third female governor, following those in Osaka and Kumamoto.
Her victory in a prefecture that had had 20 years of con