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SHIZUOKA, Japan / NAGOYA, Japan / TOKYO – A Japanese governor whose environmental concerns have delayed construction of a segment of a very high-speed train project worth more than 60 billion won has been re-elected Sunday, getting a fourth term.
Heita Kawakatsu, who ran as an independent, defeated a challenger backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Japan in Shizuoka Prefecture, home to the most photographed face of Mount Fuji southwest of Tokyo.
Kawakatsu, 72, framed his re-election campaign around Central Japan Railway’s Chuo Shinkansen project, a magnetic levitation rail line that will link Tokyo and Nagoya in about 40 minutes. His victory could postpone the scheduled commissioning on the line, now set for 2027 but likely to be delayed.
“I was given the task of protecting the waters of the Southern Alps, of protecting the environment,” Kawakatsu said in his victory speech. “I will work hard to find a way to a solution.”
The governor told a press conference that he wanted a “scientific discussion” over his concerns that the tunneling for the project would undermine the flow of the Oi River and other water sources. He promised to have an “open discussion” with Central Japan Railway, also known as JR Central, to keep the public informed.
Heita Kawakatsu celebrates her re-election as governor of Shizuoka Prefecture on June 20. © Kyodo
Construction of the railway is underway in other segments, but Kawakatsu has not approved work on a section of tunnel in Shizuoka Prefecture. The tunnel passes through the prefectures of Yamanashi, Shizuoka and Nagano, cutting through a mountain range known as the Southern Alps.
A spokesperson for JR Central declined to comment on the election results on Sunday, but said the company would “continue to work to allay people’s concerns about the Oi River Basin” while respecting the findings of a panel commissioned by the national government.
Draft conclusions released in March by the expert group, established under the auspices of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, said any loss of downstream water flow due to excavation number of tunnels would be “extremely low”. Kawakatsu suggested he might not accept the panel’s final conclusions.
In April, JR Central said he now expected the construction of the Tokyo-Nagoya line to cost 7 trillion yen ($ 63 billion), up 1.5 trillion yen from a previous estimate.
Construction on the line began in 2014. Plans are to extend it to Osaka as early as 2037.
Kawakatsu first brought its concerns to JR Central in 2017. Talks in 2020 between Kawakatsu and the president of JR Central and ministry officials did not result in a breakthrough.
The candidate defeated by Kawakatsu, former PLD MP Shigeki Iwai, was a former deputy minister in the ministry.
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