The World - News from March 20, 1989

The Japanese ruling party’s candidate won a third term as provincial governor in an election considered a test for the scandal-embroiled Liberal Democrats. With 99.5% of the vote counted in Chiba prefecture, Takeshi Numata had 969,221 votes to 783,280 for his opponent, Shoji Ishii of the Japan Communist Party. Numata was elected by a 3-to-1 margin in 1985, and the sharply narrower victory Sunday could indicate trouble for the Liberal Democrats in voting this summer for half of Parliament’s upper house. The ruling party has been stung by a scandal involving the sale of Recruit Co. stock to politicians.