The governors of Tokushima and Ibaraki prefectures cruised to victory Sunday as both won re-election to their third consecutive terms, according to early election results.

In Tokushima Prefecture, 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 over two terms covering eight years, such as his promotion of highway construction and pledges to improve social infrastructure.

Endo won 178,141 votes while Ota won 146,394. Voter turnout was 49.74 percent, up 6.82 percentage points from the previous election.

Ota, a former prefectural assembly member, was supported by civic groups that had promoted a plebiscite for a dam project on the Yoshino River. During his campaign, Ota 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, Ota failed to make his name and platform widely known. The absence of a major campaign issue after the prefectural and central governments canceled the dam project last August also worked against him.

Meanwhile, in Ibaraki Prefecture, incumbent Masaru Hashimoto, 55, secured his third four-year term as governor in a landslide victory over his rival, 70-year-old lawyer Naoto Nakata.

Hashimoto, who enjoyed backing from the three coalition parties as well as the Democratic Party of Japan and the Social Democratic Party, pulled in 561,825 votes. Nakata won 129,134.

Voter turnout was a paltry 29.93 percent, breaking the previous record low of 30.89 percent in the gubernatorial election held in 1991.

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.