Hideki Nagafuji, a 42-year-old former Osaka Prefectural Assembly member, defeated two other contenders. Voter turnout stood at 40.83 percent. The regional party's so-called Osaka metropolis plan calls for reorganizing the prefectural capital of Osaka into special wards. In April, the party won the Osaka prefectural and mayoral elections. Nagafuji collected 137,862 votes, against 123,771 votes garnered by Tomoaki Nomura, 45, a former Sakai Municipal Assembly member, and 14,110 votes by Takashi Tachibana, 51, a former assembly member for Katsushika Ward, Tokyo.

OSAKA – Japanese opposition party Osaka Ishin no Kai decided Tuesday to change its name by removing "Osaka," as the party tries to gain wider support from across the country. The party, which has its base in Osaka Prefecture, made the decision at a meeting of its executives in the city of Osaka. It will formally adopt a new party name at an extraordinary party convention to be held in the city on Aug. 23. In Sunday's election for the House of Councilors, in which half of the chamber's 242 seats were contested, Osaka Ishin won only seven seats -- three in prefectural constituencies and four under the nationwide proportional representation system. The three constituency seats it won are in Osaka and neighboring Hyogo Prefecture.