Incumbents were victorious in both gubernatorial elections held Sunday in Tokushima and Ibaraki prefectures, beating off challenges from one opponent each, according to early election results.

In Tokushima, incumbent Gov. Toshio Endo, 58, beat off a challenge from Tadashi Ota, a 58-year-old rookie.

Endo was backed by the tripartite ruling coalition -- the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party -- as well as the Liberal Party. His campaign focused on his actions as governor for two terms over eight years, such as promoting the construction of highways in the prefecture, and pledges to improve social infrastructure.

Endo set up support groups in all of the prefecture's 50 municipalities and was able to secure support from all parts of the prefecture.

Ota, a former prefectural assembly member, was supported by civic groups that had promoted a plebiscite over a dam project on the Yoshino River. During his campaign, Ota also vowed to suspend the ongoing expansion of Tokushima airport if he was elected.

Although he tried to win over voters with no particular party affiliation, he was unable to make his name and platform widely known, and the absence of a major campaign issue, after the prefectural government and the central government canceled the dam project last August, also worked against his campaign.

In Ibaraki Prefecture, incumbent Masaru Hashimoto secured his third four-year term as governor of the northern Kanto region prefecture.

Throughout the vote-tallying, Hashimoto, 55, enjoyed a comfortable lead over his rival, 70-year-old lawyer Naoto Nakata. Hashimoto was backed by the three coalition parties, the Democratic Party of Japan and the Social Democratic Party.

An employee of the former Home Affairs Ministry, Hashimoto's campaign stressed his actions as governor, including three municipality mergers and large public projects such as the construction of a port and a highway in the prefecture.

During the campaign, Nakata, supported by the Japanese Communist Party, questioned Hashimoto's public works policies amid ongoing financial difficulty.