Japan's ruling party loses local vote after security policy shift

TOKYO (Reuters) - A candidate backed by Japan's ruling coalition lost a race for a governorship on Sunday in an apparent backlash against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's decision to end a security policy that has kept the military from fighting abroad since 1945.

The election in the western prefecture of Shiga was the first high-profile poll since Abe's cabinet adopted a resolution ending the ban on exercising "collective self-defence", or aiding a friendly country under attack - the most dramatic change in Japanese security policy in decades.