KAMOENAI, Hokkaido--The incumbent mayor here handily won re-election in the first mayoral race in 36 years, after he started the process to attract a facility to store highly radioactive nuclear waste. 

Masayuki Takahashi, 71, swept to victory at the ballot box, winning his sixth term as mayor of the village of Kamoenai.

He beat rookie challenger Hideyuki Seo, 79, the deputy head of a citizen’s group that opposes nuclear power facilities, who ran for the first time.

“Voters understood my policies,” Takahashi told his supporters after the election returns came in.

The Feb. 27 mayoral election was the first since 1986 and coincided with an ongoing literature review by officials, the first stage in the site-selection process for hosting a nuclear waste storage facility.

Takahashi, who oversaw the municipality entering the selection process, won 559 votes, while Seo managed to gain only 48 votes. Both candidates ran as independents.

There were 706 eligible voters in the municipality and 23 of the votes cast were invalid.

Turnout was 89.24 percent, down from the 97.67 percent recorded in the 1986 election.

After his big win, Takahashi said it was too early to say how the village feels about the prospect of hosting a storage facility for nuclear waste and suggested holding a public vote over the matter at a later date.

“I would first like to see the results of the literature review process before considering how to sum up the views of the village assembly and villagers,” he said. “A referendum is one of the ways to do so.”

The village applied to be considered as a site for storing nuclear waste in October 2020 following the central government’s invitation to do so.

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan (NUMO) started the literature review process in November 2020, which was expected to take about two years to complete and is scheduled to finish in fall this year.

Takahashi declared his candidacy in December last year. During the election campaign, he argued that he had to fulfill his responsibilities that came with his decision to apply for the village to be considered for the site.

A research overview, which is the second stage of the process, will take four years. He said he would decide whether the village would enter that phase after making sure that is definitely what residents want.

He had also appealed to voters by emphasizing his 20 years of experience as mayor, as well as his polices to promote the village’s fishing industry and to expand welfare and education services.

Seo entered the race in January. Initially, he said the nuclear waste facility would not be the issue he would contest the election over.

But just before the election was formally announced, he made his position clear by vowing he would oppose entering the second stage of the selection process, although he accepted the fact that the first part of the process was already under way.

However, Seo, who does not live in Kamoenai village but neighboring Tomari village, failed to gather enough support.

After he was beaten by the popular incumbent mayor, he apologized to reporters for his lack of ability to win votes.

But he added that his candidacy managed to upset the authorities and said that it was a meaningful show of opposition to the central government’s stance on nuclear waste and Takahashi’s decision to accept it.

The election was the first opportunity in which villagers could express their views on the matter since storing nuclear waste became an issue in the municipality in fall 2020.

The huge win for Takahashi suggests the villagers showed at least some support for the first step in the process, but the next issue will be what they think of the second stage.

The village has no ordinance that would force a referendum over entering the second stage of the process, although Takahashi suggested it should hold one.

The same site-selection research process is also occurring in the nearby town of Suttsu.

In October last year, Haruo Kataoka, who supports the literature review process, won his sixth term in Suttsu’s mayoral election, similarly beating a candidate who opposed it. The town will hold a referendum on whether to enter the second stage of the selection process.

Hokkaido Governor Naomichi Suzuki has opposed the review process. His position is crucial, as the second stage requires approval by the governor, as well as that of the local municipality.