Former health minister Masuzoe still leads Tokyo gubernatorial race

A poll has shown that Yoichi Masuzoe, former health minister of Japan, still leads the race to win the Tokyo gubernatorial election to be hold on Feb. 9, local media reported. Masuzoe, 65, an independent supported by the Liberal Democratic Party-led ruling coalition, remains ahead of former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, 76, and Kenji Utsunomiya, 67, the former head of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations. The order is unchanged from the previous survey released on Jan. 24. According to the telephone survey conducted by Kyodo News over the weekend, Masuzoe is backed by more than 60 percent of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's supporters, 80 percent of New Komeito supporters and around 30 percent of voters who do not support a specific party. In contrast, Hosokawa and Utsunomiya are backed by less than 20 percent voters who do not support a specific party. The survey found 32.6 percent of respondents were undecided about who to vote for, compared with 43.0 percent in the previous poll. It showed 30.6 percent believe the economy and employment are the most important issues in the election, while 27.3 percent said the aging population and low birthrate as well as welfare. Nuclear power generation and the issue of energy was third at 14.7 percent, down nearly 4 points from the previous poll. The survey was conducted on 1,540 randomly dialed households, of which 1,040 responded.