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A candidate from Japan's ruling party lost a race for a governorship on Sunday, domestic media reported, apparently in a reaction at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's decision to end a policy that has kept the military from fighting abroad since 1945. The election in the western prefecture of Shiga was the first high-profile poll since Abe's cabinet adopted a resolution ending the ban on exercising "collective self-defense", or aiding a friendly country under attack - the most dramatic change in Japanese security policy in decades. Abe has argued the change is needed to cope with a tough security environment, but the move has stirred angst among many voters wary of entanglement in foreign wars and worried that Japan's post-war pacifist constitution is being gutted. Ruling Liberal Democratic Party-backed Takashi Koyari was defeated by former opposition Democratic party lawmaker Taizo Mikazuki, the Kyodo news agency and the Nikkei business daily reported, based on projections from a partial vote count.More...