Photo/Illutration Voters listen to a gubernatorial election candidate’s speech in Shizuoka’s Suruga Ward on May 9. (Miho Tanaka)

SHIZUOKA--A record high six first-time candidates are running in the election for governor of Shizuoka Prefecture to replace Heita Kawakatsu, who resigned after making offensive comments toward farmers and factory workers.

The official campaign kicked off on May 9 and voting will be held on May 26.

The focus of the election will be construction of the high-speed Linear Chuo Shinkansen Line.

Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) plans to connect Nagoya with Tokyo through the magnetic-levitation (maglev) line, but Kawakatsu has blocked construction in Shizuoka Prefecture, citing environmental concerns.

The candidates to succeed Kawakatsu are: Masafumi Yokoyama, 56, head of a political organization; Daisuke Mori, 55, chairman of the Japanese Communist Party’s Shizuoka prefectural branch; Yasutomo Suzuki, 66, former mayor of Hamamatsu; Shinichi Omura, 60, former deputy governor of the prefecture; Takeshi Murakami, 73, a self-employed businessman; and Satomi Hamanaka, 62, a company president.

All candidates are independents, except for Yokoyama and Mori.

It will be the first Shizuoka gubernatorial race in 15 years fought among newcomers.

The election is seen as a showdown between Omura, who is backed by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party, and Suzuki, supported by the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Democratic Party for the People.

It will be the first major local election since the ruling LDP lost in all three Lower House by-elections held last month.

Both Suzuki and Omura support the construction of the Linear Chuo Shinkansen Line if it doesn’t harm the environment.

“The maglev project will accelerate migration to the eastern part of the prefecture, which is close to the Tokyo metropolitan area, and will have an economic ripple effect,” Suzuki said.

Omura pledged to make a decision on the project within a year without compromising on water and environmental issues.

On the other hand, Mori criticized the maglev plan over its environmental impact and argued that the spread of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced the necessity of the line.

Kawakatsu, 75, who was serving his fourth term, submitted his resignation in April.

At a welcoming ceremony for new prefectural government employees on April 1, Kawakatsu said in a speech: “You have brains and are highly intelligent, unlike people who sell vegetables, attend to cattle and manufacture products.”

The speech, streamed on the prefectural government’s official YouTube channel, sparked outrage.

Kawakatsu has refused to approve JR Tokai’s request for tunnel construction under the Southern Japan Alps, citing the potential impact on water flow in the Oigawa river system, which supplies water to local residents and farmers.

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