Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara was re-elected in a landslide in Sunday's nationwide local elections to choose governors and members of prefectural and municipal assemblies.

The popular Ishihara, 70, won the race over four others, including social critic Keiko Higuchi, by a large margin. The win appeared to be a vote of confidence for his style of setting out unique, often controversial policies.

With 72 percent of the ballots counted, Ishihara had captured more than 2 million votes.

Incumbents also secured re-election in Iwate, Fukuoka and Shimane prefectures.

Former Lower House member Shigefumi Matsuzawa won the Kanagawa gubernatorial election, and Akihiko Noro, a former mayor of Matsuzaka, was elected governor of Mie Prefecture. The race in Fukui was won by former vice governor Issei Nishikawa.

Sunday's polling involved gubernatorial elections in 10 prefectures, a mayoral election in Sapporo and assembly races in 44 prefectures and 12 major cities.

Gubernatorial races were held in Hokkaido, Iwate, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Fukui, Mie, Shimane, Fukuoka, Saga and Oita prefectures. In Tottori Prefecture, incumbent governor Yoshihiro Katayama won his re-election uncontested on March 27.

In the prefectural assembly elections, a pre-vote Kyodo News survey showed that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party was poised to secure nearly 1,400 of the total 2,634 contested seats.

The races marked the first half of the 15th "unified" quadrennial local elections. Numerous other mayoral and municipal assembly elections are scheduled for April 27, when four Diet by-elections will also take place.

Despite the fine weather in most parts of the country, average voter turnout in the 10 gubernatorial races was estimated at above 50 percent, but possibly lower than the 57.28 percent of four years ago. There is speculation that public attention was distracted by the ongoing war in Iraq.

Voter turnout in the Tokyo race was 44.94 percent, far below the 57.9 percent four years ago and the second lowest rate ever, due largely to the widespread view that the incumbent would win easily.

The number of candidates in the Tokyo race was the smallest ever, in sharp contrast to the record-high 19 candidates in the previous race, won by Ishihara in 1999.

Ishihara's platform, based on his policies during his past four years in office, included an initiative to set up a new bank for small and midsize companies, an increase in police patrols and curbs on air-polluting diesel-powered vehicles.

Higuchi, 70, was considered a major rival of Ishihara as she was backed informally by two opposition parties -- the Democratic Party of Japan and the Social Democratic Party.

However, Higuchi apparently failed to win wide support. A Kyodo News poll taken a week before the voting found that 68 percent of DPJ supporters were in favor of Ishihara. A wide range of people, irrespective of age and occupation, including those who say they do not support any particular political party, are believed to have voted for the outspoken incumbent.

Local chapters of the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito, which form a ruling coalition on the national level together with the New Conservative Party, also threw support behind Ishihara. Even some DPJ Diet members and local assembly members openly backed the incumbent.

With his popularity, Ishihara, a former Diet member who became governor of the nation's capital after retiring from national politics in 1995, has been considered a likely candidate for prime minister.

Even as he enters his second term, speculation is not likely to die down that Ishihara will someday return to the Diet, possibly by forming his own party, in a bid to lead the nation.

At the helm of the metropolitan government, he has provoked many controversies with his policies and remarks, including a new local tax on major banks that has been ruled invalid by courts and comments taken as discriminatory against foreigners and women.

The other candidates were Yoshiharu Wakabayashi, 52, head of the Tokyo chapter of the Japanese Communist Party; inventor Yoshiro Nakamatsu, 74, better known as "Dr. Nakamatsu"; and agricultural consultant Kazutomo Ikeda, 70.

Higuchi and Wakabayashi have taken issue with the manner in which Ishihara has run the metropolitan government and were trying to raise their profiles by opposing the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and Japan's support of it amid widespread antiwar sentiment.

In the Kanagawa race, Matsuzawa, 45, a former DPJ member who quit the Diet to run for governor, defeated rivals including Ryoichi Takarada, 55, a local company president backed by the ruling coalition parties, and Yoko Tajima, 62, a former Upper House member who also gave up her Diet seat.

In Mie, the 56-year-old Noro, backed by the DPJ, the Liberal Party and the SDP, defeated three rivals to win the race and take over from outgoing Gov. Masayasu Kitagawa.

Noro said after being declared the winner that he will try to complete the reform initiatives launched by Kitagawa.

In Iwate, Shimane and Fukuoka, incumbents Hiroya Masuda, 51, Nobuyoshi Sumita, 68, and Wataru Aso, 63, easily won re-election.

In Fukui, the 58-year-old Nishikawa, with the backing of the LDP, New Komeito, the DPJ and the SDP, won the race over contenders including Bundo Takagi, 48, a former diplomat who was running as an independent.

In Hokkaido, the LDP and the NCP were backing former bureaucrat Harumi Takahashi, 49. Former DPJ lawmaker Yoshio Hachiro, 55, was supported by the DPJ, the SDP and the Liberal Party.

Earlier media surveys indicated that none of the nine candidates running in the Hokkaido race may be able to obtain one-fourth of the valid votes cast. This would require a second election, under the Public Offices Election Law.

In Saga, six candidates, including independent Iwamasa Miyahara, a 61-year-old former prefectural assembly chairman, and Yasushi Furukawa, a 44-year-old former bureaucrat, were contesting the election.

In Oita, Katsusada Hirose, 60, former vice minister of economy, trade and industry, was backed by the governing coalition, with two others contesting the race.

Seven candidates were running in the Sapporo mayoral election. Earlier media polls have indicated that here again, a second election may be necessary since none of the candidates appeared strong enough to obtain the minimum required number of votes.

The seven included former Diet member Noriyuki Nakao, 56; two former city assembly members -- Taka Yamaguchi, 53, and Shigenobu Domi, 57, who has the support of the LDP and NCP; and Fumio Ueda, 54, a lawyer backed by the DPJ.