April 8, 2025

A candidate whom concerned citizens and the Japanese Communist Party supported on April 6 won his first election for mayor of Osaka’s Kishiwada City, defeating his opponents, including former Mayor Nagano Kohei who was ousted over a sexual assault scandal.

The election took place following the dismissal of former Mayor Nagano (the Osaka Ishin no Kai party) who lost his position after the city assembly adopted a no-confidence motion against him twice in regard to his sexual assault of a woman.

In the election, Sano, who used to serve as local post office head, won 48,307 votes while Nagano received 7,606 votes, less than one third of the votes he obtained in the previous election three years ago. The voter turnout rate was 40.03%, nearly 12% up from the previous election.