Abe’s pro-nuclear energy policy to gain strength

The election of a conservative governor of Tokyo on Sunday is expected to help Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reinforce his drive to restart Japan's nuclear reactors and boost his economic reform agenda, political observers said.

Backed by Abe's ruling coalition, Yoichi Masuzoe, a former health minister and a human rights activist, won the Tokyo gubernatorial election.

Masuzoe defeated 15 contenders, including former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa who called for an end to atomic power nearly three years after the Fukushima disaster, the world’s second most disastrous nuclear incident after Chernobyl which occurred in 1986.

Hosokawa joined forces with Junichiro Koizumi, also former prime minister, in anti-nuclear power plant campaigns.

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com