UPDATE1: Incumbent Gunma Gov. Osawa reelected+

MAEBASHI, Japan, July 3 Kyodo -
(EDS: UPDATING 1ST, 6TH GRAFS)
Incumbent Gunma Gov. Masaaki Osawa won a landslide victory in the prefecture's gubernatorial race Sunday, defeating three challengers, according to the final voting results.
Declaring victory, the 65-year-old Osawa said at his campaign office in Maebashi, ''Various industries in Gunma are now in a severe state in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. I will take the initiative in achieving economic recovery as soon as possible.''
While Osawa was backed by three opposition parties -- the Liberal Democratic Party, the New Komeito party and Your Party -- the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, meanwhile, refrained from fielding a candidate, making it a lackluster campaign without major points of dispute.
The voter turnout stood at a record-low 36.62 percent, down 0.79 point from the previous record marked in 2003.
The three other candidates were Arata Goto, 50, a former member of the Gunma prefectural assembly, Keiji Kosuge, 60, of the Japanese Communist Party, and Atsushi Ebine, 64, an independent.
The voting outcome showed Osawa garnered 392,504 votes, Goto 148,790, Kosuge 33,355 and Ebine 6,515, according to the prefectural election board.
During the campaign, Osawa stressed his achievements in his first four-year term, including introduction of free medical care for children, and argued that the prefectural government will overcome the economic slump in cooperation with municipal governments in the wake of the March disaster.
==Kyodo
2011-07-03 21:48:21