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Japan PM-backed candidate seen ahead as Tokyo voters go to polls | Reuters

Voters in Japan's capital go to the polls on Sunday with a candidate backed by the ruling party likely to win the race to become governor, frustrating rivals' efforts to make the vote a referendum on the prime minister's pro-nuclear energy policy.

Media surveys have shown a former health minister, Yoichi Masuzoe, backed by ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), far ahead of ex-prime minister Morihiro Hosokawa, who has made opposition to nuclear power the top of his platform.

Hosokawa, 76, who is running with support from charismatic former premier Junichiro Koizumi, opposes Abe's plans to make nuclear power a core source of energy and to restart the reactors.

Some anti-nuclear activists had urged Hosokawa and another anti-nuclear power candidate, lawyer Kenji Utsunomiya, who is backed by the Japanese Communist Party, to join forces to avoid splitting the anti-nuclear vote.