Resentment against Existing Parties Shown in Tokyo Elections

The incumbent governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, achieved a victory and secured her third term in the gubernatorial election voted on July 7. A contender supported by the opposition parties in national politics, Renho, fell in the third position behind an independent candidate, Shinji Ishimaru. The result, including by-elections of Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, showed fundamental resentment against existing political parties, casting a shadow on the future of ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Koike did not accept official support from the LDP and Komeito for her campaign. Both parties decided to voluntarily support for Koike. According to exit poll of NHK, 60 percent of LDP supporters and 80 percent of Komeito supporters voted for Koike. They are undeniably the driving force for Koike’s victory.

 

She was successful in performing as taking distance from the LDP which has been unpopular in current elections, , caused by the slush fund scandal. Although Koike was formerly an LDP lawmaker, she distinguished herself from the LDP as the governor of Tokyo, leading her Tokyoites First Party. That stance made LDP’s “stealth support” for Koike easier.

 

Renho failed in setting her agenda within the structure of confrontation between the leading and opposition parties in national politics. When she announced her candidacy in May, Renho emphasized her bid against Koike as “anti-LDP, non-Koike. But Koike escaped from Renho’s campaign strategy. Renho ironically lost her momentum by accepting earnest support from Constitutional Democratic Party and Japan Communist Party.

 

The candidate who obtained anti-LDP votes was Ishimaru. As former mayor of Aki-Takata city, Hiroshima, Ishimaru focused on his campaign through social networking service. In the speeches on the street, he asked his audience to upload his campaign to internet, instead appealing his own policies for Tokyo. In YouTube video, he kept on denouncing existing politics.

 

The pessimism in the LDP is based on the result of by-elections of Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, voted on the same day. Although the LDP raised its candidates in eight districts out of nine, it won only in two districts. The party reduced three seats in the election, facing criticisms on its management of political funds shown in the slush fund scandal of the Diet members.

 

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida did not stand on the stage of campaigns in Tokyo gubernatorial election or by-elections of the assembly. It was obvious that Kishida would have received harsh accusations against his handling of the slush fund scandal from the audience of his speech. The result of the elections in Tokyo will work against reelection in the LDP presidential election this fall.

 

Tokyo gubernatorial election in 2024 was not completely the event for selecting next governor of Tokyo, because some candidates were not intending to work as a governor, but to collect money by selling opportunity for expression as a candidate or to earn more page views in SNS. The existing parties began to consider new legislation to regulate election campaigns. The biggest loser might be democracy in Japan.