Tokyo votes in governor election

Voters in Tokyo went to the polls Sunday to pick a successor for controversial governor Shintaro Ishihara, a firebrand blamed for worsening a row over islands disputed with China. Polls in the metropolis of 13 million came the same day as a nationwide lower house election expected to return the conservative Liberal Democratic Party to power after three years in the political wilderness. Ishihara, a veteran right-winger, abruptly resigned late October to form a new national political party for the general election. His chosen successor, deputy governor Naoki Inose, 66, a prize-winning author like Ishihara, has a commanding lead among the nine candidates who have thrown their hats into the ring, analysts say. The Tokyo vote will essentially be a referendum on Ishihara, who was a year into his fourth four-year term when his plan to buy a group of Tokyo-controlled islands also claimed by Beijing sparked a fierce row. Inose, seen as a tough-minded reformer, has pledged to continue Ishihara's bid for Tokyo to host the 2020 Olympic Games, despite the city's costly failure to win the 2016 Games. Despite the overall financial gloom in Japan, the capital exists in something of a bubble, and still boasts eye-wateringly expensive eateries and shops stocking the world's finest luxury goods.