Nuclear Critic Loses Japan Election

TOKYO—An outspoken critic of nuclear power lost a local governor's election in southwestern Japan on Sunday, according to projections by national broadcaster NHK, defeated by an old-guard candidate in a race that had come to serve as a litmus test for the future of atomic energy in the country.

The gubernatorial election in Yamaguchi prefecture, a traditional stronghold for conservative forces and longtime backers of atomic energy, was closely watched around the country to see whether the recent uprising of grass-roots antinuclear protests would translate into voter action in an area earmarked for the construction of a new nuclear-power plant.

Based on exit polls, NHK and other Japanese media projected that former Land Ministry bureaucrat Shigetaro Yamamoto, who had the backing of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, defeated three opponents including green-energy advocate Tetsunari Iida, who campaigned on a platform to stop the planned construction of the nuclear-power plant in Kaminoseki.

While counting continued, Mr. Yamamoto had claimed about 60% of the votes in early returns, prefectural officials said.

"In order to build a new Yamaguchi, we'll put the local government into action," Mr. Yamamoto said in a speech to supporters at a victory celebration. He had run on a campaign of increased public-works spending in an effort to jump start the local economy.

"It was a victory that showed the conscience and common sense of the people in Yamaguchi. The people judged that they can't put the future of Yamaguchi in the hands of a candidate whose only agenda was antinuclear," former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wrote on his Facebook page.

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