On February 21, DPJ Election Campaign Chair Hajime Ishii issued the following statement:

Today, the election for the governor of Nagasaki Prefecture was held, but unfortunately the candidate backed by the DPJ and other ruling parties, Tsuyoshi Hashimoto, was defeated. I would like to express our gratitude to all the residents of Nagasaki Prefecture and to all those nationwide who gave their support, as well as extending our regret for the fact that our efforts as a party backing the candidate were insufficient.

Hashimoto resigned from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to make a bold bid to win this gubernatorial, and campaigned under the slogan of “Kaeru Wakasa 40sai” (The youth of a 40-year old can bring change), and continued to communicate his strong conviction toward bringing about a change in Nagasaki following the change in national politics to the residents of Nagasaki Prefecture, but unfortunately his efforts were not enough.

It is truly regrettable that Hashimoto was not successful in being elected, but he was able to engage in a campaign that called for prefectural politics to be returned to the hands of the residents of the prefecture, and he obtained widespread support. The DPJ takes this result extremely seriously, and will use it as a catalyst for the future, and go on to actively develop our campaign in other gubernatorials from now on. Moreover, we will continue to move forward, making every effort to move to implement a politics that “protects lives”, in the conviction that we should “put people’s lives first”.