Osaka Gov. Fusae Ota is out in front of the other candidates ahead of next Sunday's gubernatorial election, according to a Kyodo News survey conducted over the weekend.
Former House of Councilors member and professional baseball player Takenori Emoto, 56, and Japanese Communist Party-backed lawyer Shoji Umeda, 53, were trailing Ota, 52, but nearly 40 percent of respondents said they were undecided, according to the survey. The two other candidates are running as independents.
Ota, elected to a four-year term in 2000 as Japan's first female governor, is backed by the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito, and two opposition parties: the Democratic Party of Japan and the Social Democratic Party.
Emoto, a former Hanshin Tigers pitcher and baseball commentator, was first elected to the Upper House in 1992 and was re-elected in 1998.
He automatically lost his seat earlier this month by entering the gubernatorial race. He had left the DPJ shortly before that.