Japan ruling bloc loses first election under Fukuda

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TOKYO, Nov 19 (AFP): Japan's opposition said Monday the tide was turning against the ruling bloc after its candidate was voted mayor of Osaka in the first election under Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.
The opposition-supported candidate ousted the incumbent backed by Fukuda's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Sunday's election in Japan's second city after a campaign that drew senior national lawmakers from both sides.
"It was proof that voters in Osaka did not approve of the Fukuda administration and the administration supported by the Liberal Democratic Party," said Yukio Hatoyama, secretary general of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan.
"This symbolises nationwide politics," he said.
The opposition won one house of parliament in July in a voter backlash against a raft of scandals under then prime minister Shinzo Abe.
Abe, an outspoken conservative, abruptly quit after the opposition refused his calls to extend a naval mission supporting the US-led "war on terror" in Afghanistan.
Fukuda, a 71-year-old centrist political veteran, took over in late September. He is in the midst of a battle with the opposition to restart the naval deployment.
Fukuda's government downplayed the significance of the Osaka election.
"It was unfortunate that the candidate supported by the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito lost," chief government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura said, referring to the LDP's coalition partner.
"But we are not analysing it at the level of national politics. I don't think this will affect politics at the national level," he said.
In the election, Kunio Hiramatsu, a former television newscaster supported by the opposition, defeated the LDP-backed incumbent Junichi Seki, who was first elected in 2003.
The election was nominally non-partisan.
Seki, like the central government, had championed fiscal belt-tightening and had faced particular criticism for his plan to privatise part of Osaka's public transport system.