Voting starts in Japanese local elections

Apr 24, 2011, 4:16 GMT

Tokyo - Japanese voted Sunday in the second round of nationwide local elections with the focus on reconstruction in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis.

Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was crippled by the disaster and has been leaking radiation ever since.

The local races will be closely watched to see how they affect the government of embattled Prime Minister Naoto Kan, whose Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) suffered a crushing defeat in gubernatorial and other local contests in the first round earlier this month.

The DPJ was also badly beaten in the July upper house election under Kan's leadership, losing control of the chamber.

Sunday's local elections are to choose 73 new city mayors, 63 town and village leaders as well as assembly members for 292 municipalities across the nation, Kyodo News reported.

The official death toll from the March disaster stood at 14,294, with 12,026 people listed as missing as of Sunday, the National Police Agency said.

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