Ex-bureaucrat wins in Hiroshima

HIROSHIMA (Kyodo) Hidehiko Yuzaki, a 44-year-old former trade ministry bureaucrat, will be the next governor of Hiroshima, having won a landslide victory to replace the departing Yuzan Fujita.

Backed by Fujita supporters among Liberal Democratic Party ranks in the prefectural assembly, as well as members of the Democratic Party of Japan, Yuzaki defeated four other contenders Sunday.

Yuzaki's main opponent was Anri Kawai, a 36-year-old former prefectural assemblywoman who was endorsed by Shizuka Kamei, state minister in charge of postal and financial affairs and head of Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party), and LDP assembly members critical of the Fujita administration.