Japan's former health minister and candidate of Tokyo gubernatorial election Yoichi Masuzoe speaks to voters atop a van, while campaigning for the February 9 vote in Tokyo January 23, 2014. REUTERS/Toru Hanai
TOKYO (Reuters) - A candidate backed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won Sunday's election for governor of Tokyo, media said, frustrating a key rival's efforts to make the vote a referendum on the Japanese leader's pro-nuclear energy policy nearly three years after the Fukushima disaster.
The widely expected victory by former health minister Yoichi Masuzoe comes as a relief for Abe, who had suffered a rare setback in another local election last month. Masuzoe, 65, backed by Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, was the winner by a wide margin, according to media exit polls.
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