Behind Mayor Akira Ogawa’s “overwhelming victory,” Maebashi residents revealed their “concerns.

Maebashi Citizens Revealed Their True Feelings

The Maebashi mayoral election was held after the resignation of the mayor due to a “love hotel affair” with a subordinate staff member. The winner of the election was the actual person himself, former Mayor Akira Ogawa (43). The victory was a stunning victory by a so-called “zero finish,” with 0% of the votes counted at 7:00 p.m., just after the polls closed.

He won the election by more than 10,000 votes over Akira Maruyama, 40, who came in second. After winning the election, he spoke of his aspirations, quoting a popular phrase used by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi: “I will work hard and repay you all with results. On the other hand, it is difficult to say that he has fully fulfilled his accountability for the secret love-hotel meetings. Some are questioning his reelection while the allegations of adultery remain.

What do the citizens of Maebashi think? When we approached 20 male and female voters on the day of the vote, eight revealed that they had cast their votes for Ogawa. Twelve voted for other candidates.

Supporters praised him for his “achievements during his one year and nine months as mayor” and for his “personality. A father with an elementary school child said, “He has made tangible achievements, such as promoting the installation of air conditioners in elementary school gymnasiums,” and a housewife who was listening to the street speeches with her two children said, “He has also firmly apologized for that fiasco. I am supporting him with the feeling that we should forgive him. I want to entrust him with the next one as well,” she replied.

A man in his 40s said, “The main reason I voted for him this time was because of his achievements, including the fairly speedy implementation of policies to support child-rearing. I hope he will get another chance to do well in spite of the incident. I have high expectations for you. He also said, “I support you because you respond immediately to my requests. I felt that the number of people around me who appreciate Mr. Ogawa was increasing as the election approached,” said one citizen.

On the other hand, it is true that there are citizens who cannot overlook the news of their secret meetings at a love hotel. A man in his 50s who said that he and his wife both voted for someone other than Mr. Ogawa said, “He has a bad image and cannot be trusted. I don’t think it’s a good idea to entrust him again,” he said. “I won’t vote for Mr. Ogawa! A public official who eats with taxpayers’ money shouldn’t do such a joke,” said one elderly man in his 20s. An elderly woman who came to vote alone said, “He used to be a lawyer, but even if he has nothing to hide, I can’t allow him to run for office again. I won’t allow it,” she said in a strong tone of voice.

A housewife who came to vote with her daughter said, “I don’t like people who talk about such lewd things. I want other people to spend their money, not that kind of person.” Her daughter added, “I feel that he is making fun of the citizens. It makes me angry.” Both father and daughter expressed their strong feelings of rejection. She added, “I can’t support it sensibly because it’s just a topic of conversation. There was no image that Maebashi got better when Mr. Ogawa was in charge.

One of the reasons for Ogawa’s overwhelming victory was that he had no strong opponents. Even among those who voted for Mr. Ogawa, there were some who said that they wished there had been a better candidate elsewhere.

He had no opposition.

A source involved in the city’s politics explains the story behind his victory.

In addition to the fact that the Maruyama candidate was virtually unknown, there was a strong public rejection of special-interest politics. In the first place, Ogawa’s first election in the previous mayoral race was influenced by a series of scandals involving politics and money, including a slush fund problem at the LDP’s Gunma Prefectural Federation and the arrest of a deputy mayor in a government bid-rigging case.

Mr. Maruyama was ostensibly neither endorsed nor recommended, but it was obvious that he was a candidate of the LDP because of his “support for Governor Ichita Yamamoto (67). As a result, it was not “Ogawa vs. independent Maruyama,” but “Ogawa vs. Governor Yamamoto = LDP political interests. There is a great deal of opposition to this.

The Maruyama camp, which did not want to be strongly identified with the LDP, was not willing to refuse Governor Yamamoto’s support.
Some of the Maruyama campaign officials, who did not want to be strongly identified with the LDP, were troubled by the fact that they could not refuse Governor Yamamoto’s support.

On January 8, during the election campaign, Governor Yamamoto appeared at Maruyama’s rally as a speechwriter in support of the candidate and said, “If Maruyama is elected, we will consider the continuation of the Prefectural Citizens’ Hall. The Prefectural Citizens’ Hall is located in Maebashi and is a cultural center for the citizens of the city. It is being considered for demolition due to its aging, and the governor’s attitude of using the prefectural citizens’ hall as a shield drew criticism from a number of people involved in the campaign. A reporter for a local newspaper reported, “Some of the people involved in the campaign said, ‘We didn’t want him to come to …… even though he ran for office as an independent.

Although Ogawa was reelected, he faces an uphill battle in managing the city government. Last November, seven major city council factions recommended his resignation, citing a no-confidence motion. With 32 city council members, more than 80% of the total city council, his relationship with the city council remains broken. Relations with Governor Yamamoto have also cooled off, and citizens opposed to the plan have expressed concern about whether he can really manage the city government in a proper manner.

The difficult task of steering the city will continue.