NAGATO, Yamaguchi Prefecture Angered by an election poster, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s supporters threw their support behind the incumbent mayor here and led him to rout a candidate backed by the ruling coalition parties and a former rival of Abe.
With Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi having been selected for the new No. 3 district, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's caucus has come out on top over the Abe faction.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party won four of the five Diet by-elections on April 23, but rising opposition party Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) clinched the fifth for its first seat in Wakayama Prefecture.