Takaichi’s Former Colleague Lost Governor’s Seat

Former Mayor of Kanazawa city, Ishikawa, Yukiyoshi Yamano, defeated incumbent governor of Ishikawa, Hiroshi Hase, with a small margin in the gubernatorial election of Ishikawa voted on March 8th. Receiving criticisms on his initial response to a major earthquake occurred in Noto Peninsula, located at the northern Ishikawa, on the new year’s day in 2024, Hase lost his seat after his first four-year term as the governor. Although Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made a visit to Ishikawa to support Hase’s campaign, her high popularity did not lead to his victory. 

Yamano won the election with 245 thousand of votes against Hase with 239 thousand. Although Hase led Yamano in rural areas in Ishikawa prefecture, Yamano accumulated votes in the city of Kanazawa, where he was the mayor for twelve years since 2010. In the previous gubernatorial election in 2022, Yamano lost against Hase with 8 thousand of margin.

 

In his election campaign, Yamano stressed his effort for reconstruction from 2024 Noto earthquake with syphoning opinions from devastated communities. He insisted on close communication between the prefectural government and local municipalities or national government. Hase could not catch up Yamano, even though he appealed his capacity to continue his policies for reconstruction.

 

When Noto earthquake occurred on January 1st, 2024, Hase was not in Ishikawa, but in his home in Tokyo. Hearing news of the disaster, Hase went to Prime Minister’s Official Residence to communicate with his staffs in Ishikawa prefectural government. Although he went back to Ishikawa the other day, he did not visit the devastated area for two weeks, losing confidence of sufferers.

 

Hase also told that individual volunteers should refrain from supporting recovery from the disaster for the time being. That announcement was publicly regarded as rejecting any help for reconstruction. A reviewing committee of the disaster concluded that initial measures of prefectural government for Noto earthquake had been inappropriate.

 

When a large storm hit the devastated area in August 4th, 2024, which made damage of the earthquake worse, Hase was not in the office of Ishikawa prefecture, because he was climbing a mountain. Hase had a problem in communication when major disaster occurred.

 

Before he made a lawmaker with support of former prime minister Yoshiro Mori, Hase was a professional wrestler. He was affiliated with Mori faction, later Abe faction, a political group in the Liberal Democratic Party once prime minister Takaichi was. Hase was involved in kickback scandal, receiving 8.19 million yen from Abe faction.

 

As a former colleague in Mori or Abe faction, Takaichi decided to join Hase’s campaign on February 28th, 2026, leaving Tokyo after receiving a news report that the United States made military attack on Iran.

 

It is highly unusual for the prime minister to leave Tokyo at the time when she needed to take measures to secure safety of Japanese citizens in the country that was in a war. Nevertheless, Hase did not achieve a victory with extraordinary support from the prime minister. It showed that high popularity of Takaichi is not powerful enough to compensate inappropriate management of natural disaster by a governor.

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