Japan’s opposition Liberal Democratic Party is expected to win a lower house by-election on Sunday in a blow to Prime Minister Naoto Kan who has been criticised for his handling of the nuclear crisis. In the by-election in central Aichi prefecture, candidates focused on disaster countermeasures after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami which triggered the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl 25 years ago. LDP candidate Hideki Niwa, 38, is expected to win the seat, beating four rivals, local media reported. While Kan’s ruling Democratic Party of Japan, which controls the lower house, failed to field a candidate, Niwa and the conservative LDP fiercely criticised his handling of the Fukushima nuclear crisis as “irresponsible.” Japan also held a second round of local elections on Sunday, picking 73 new city mayors and 63 town and village leaders, with hundreds of municipalities also voting in local assembly elections. Public attention has been focused on reconstruction of the country’s disaster-hit northeast and stabilising the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. In Fukushima prefecture, many municipalities, including those evacuated, postponed their vote.
