Tokyo Governor Ishihara wins third term - media

TOKYO, Apr 8 (Reuters) Nationalist Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara won a third term today, media reported, in one of several local elections seen as giving clues to how Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling party will fare in a July upper house poll.

Ishihara, 74, a prize-winning author and former ruling party politician, ran with the support of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior coalition partner.

His closest rival, reform-minded Shiro Asano, 59, was backed by the main opposition Democratic Party, although both shunned official nominations in a sign they believed voters are growing fed up with major parties.

The election was one of 13 gubernatorial races which will be closely examined by the parties' national campaign managers for trends among the growing ranks of Japanese ''floating voters'' who shun party affiliation.

Public broadcaster NHK said Ishihara attracted support from about 40 percent of the capital's floating voters, whose backing is seen as crucial to victory in the July upper house poll, Abe's first big electoral test since taking office last September.

A loss in the upper house election would not force Abe to step down, but a poor showing could make him a lame duck.

Outside the capital, LDP-backed candidates faced Democratic-supported rivals in four other gubernatorial races.

LDP-supported candidates were assured victory in the northern island of Hokkaido and Fukuoka in southern Japan, while contenders running with Democratic Party backing won in rural Iwate -- home ground of the party's leader Ichiro Ozawa -- and Kanagawa, near Tokyo, NHK said.

Once seen as prime ministerial material, Ishihara won his first two terms as Tokyo governor by landslides, but he had come under criticism for handing out jobs to family members and spending tax money on expensive trips.

During his eight years at city hall, Ishihara impressed many with his straight talk and leadership, but angered others with rants against China, resident foreigners, women past child-bearing age and homosexuals.

Asano, a former governor of the rural prefecture of Miyagi, had pledged to make Tokyo a friendlier place for weaker members of society and to make its government more transparent.

The two main rivals clashed over Ishihara's bid to bring the 2016 Olympics to Tokyo. Asano had also promised to end what he calls the governor's ''politics of fear'' in the capital's schools.

A directive issued by the Tokyo school board in 2003 requires high school teachers to stand facing the national flag and sing the national anthem -- associated by some with wartime militarism -- during school ceremonies or face punishment.

REUTERS PDM KN1808