Japan\\\'s ruling party loses local vote after security policy shift

A candidate backed by Japan's ruling coalition lost a race for a governorship on Sunday in an apparent backlash against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's decision to end a security policy that has kept the military from fighting abroad since 1945. The election in the western prefecture of Shiga was the first high-profile poll since Abe's cabinet adopted a resolution ending the ban on exercising ‘collective self-defense’, or aiding a friendly country under attack - the most dramatic change in Japanese security policy in decades. Abe has argued the change is needed to cope with a tough security environment, but the move has stirred angst among many voters wary of entanglement in foreign wars and worried that Japan's post-war pacifist constitution is being gutted. Takashi Koyari, who ran with the backing of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, was defeated by former opposition Democratic Party lawmaker Taizo Mikazuki, according to the prefecture's final vote count. The loss sends a warning signal to Abe's administration, whose voter support has dropped below 50 per cent in public opinion surveys after the July 1 shift in security policy. ‘This confirms that this was not a popular idea,’ said Sophia University professor Koichi Nakano. ‘The LDP will continue to have to worry about more defeats to follow.’ Three more gubernatorial races are set for later this year, to be followed by a slew of local polls nationwide next April. No general election is mandated until 2016, according to Reuters.