An opposition-backed former lawmaker won the Sendai mayoral election on Sunday, a result certain to pile pressure on the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which is reeling from scandals and waning public support.
Kazuko Kori's victory in Miyagi Prefecture is the second major local election defeat in a row for Abe's Liberal Democratic Party and further evidence the tide has turned against him since his party was crushed in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election earlier this month.
Kori, a former member of the House of Representatives who was parliamentary secretary of the Reconstruction Agency, defeated funeral home president Hironori Sugawara, who was backed by the LDP and its ruling coalition partner, Komeito, by a vote of 165,452 to 148,993.