Communist town mayor reelected in Hyogo

An incumbent Japanese Communist Party member mayor successfully secured his second term by defeating a Liberal Democratic Party candidate in a mayoral election in Kurodasho Town in Hyogo Prefecture on February 17.

Mayor Higashino Toshihiro received 3,360 votes and his contender, former LDP town assembly member, 2,109.

Higashino got wide support from townspeople, while the challenger was supported by the LDP and the Buraku Liberation League (Kaido), an anti-JCP group disguising itself as representing the cause of the "liberation" of Buraku from economic and social discrimination in order to abuse tax money.

Since he was elected in 1998, Mayor Higashino stopped Kaido's attempt to monopolize the town's undertakings and improved welfare and education programs. (end)