Yoshiaki Wada, the Liberal Democratic Party-backed candidate, secured a seat in a Hokkaido by-election Sunday in what is seen as giving a boost to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's party in the upcoming Upper House election, after defeating the Democratic Party's candidate in a close race.
In another by-election in Kyoto, Kenta Izumi, backed by the Democratic Party, won the race, beating Natsue Mori and another candidate, Yukiko Ono, who was backed by the conservative Party for Japanese Kokoro.
The voter turnout rate for the Hokkaido poll came to 57.63 percent while that for Kyoto stood at 30.12 percent.