So far, they seem to be doing just that, with even conservative prefectures like Saga, Nagasaki and Gifu voting for Mr. Koizumi.
A6 Reformer Wins Japan Seat A flamboyant reformer, Yasuo Tanaka, won re-election as governor in the traditionally conservative Nagano prefecture, six weeks after being ousted by the regional legislature for "causing confusion" in the prefecture's usually quiescent politics.
Last month, a candidate backing an antinuclear agenda made a strong showing in a governor's race in a western prefecture that was considered a conservative stronghold, surprising the political elite.
"People get the wrong impression of Japan – it's a conservative country," said Peter Payne, skyping me from Gunma Prefecture, 100 kilometres north of Tokyo.
"People get the wrong impression of Japan it's a conservative country," said Peter Payne, skyping me from Gunma Prefecture, 60 miles north of Tokyo.
A career conservative named Takeshi Onaga became governor of Okinawa Prefecture in the fall of 2014 after he vowed to stop the Henoko project.
"People get the wrong impression of Japan it's a conservative country," said Peter Payne, Skyping me from Gunma Prefecture, 60 miles north of Tokyo.
The choreographer of all of this action was Shintaro Ishihara, the very pleased-looking governor of Tokyo prefecture who has long been known as a populist conservative showman.
Monsignor Vallejo Balda, who was taken into custody this week, is a Spanish member of the conservative religious order Opus Dei, and was the No. 2 man at the Vatican's Prefecture for Economic Affairs.
Fukui is a prefecture divided.
