In the same year, he ran for and won the Kyoto gubernatorial election on the Japan Socialist Party ticket, also backed by Zen Kyoto Minshusensen Toitsu Kaigi (abbreviated as Minto; Congress of All Kyoto Democratic United Front), and thereafter he served as governor for seven consecutive terms over twenty-eight years in all.
同年、日本社会党公認・全京都民主戦線統一会議（民統）推薦で京都府知事選挙に立候補し当選、以後7期28年間知事を務める。