New Party for Impacting Traditional Politics

Former mayor of small city in western Japan called Akitakata, Shinji Ishimaru, announced on January 15th that he launched a new local political party named Path to Rebirth, or Saisei no Michi in Japanese. Ishimaru hopes to field candidates in all the districts in the election of Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly scheduled in this summer. Having said that the party would not embrace any policy for the election, the party appears to be a highly unusual entity in Japanese politics.

Ishimaru was elected the mayor of Akitakata when he was 37 years old in 2020, criticizing a scandal in which his predecessor had received money from a lawmaker of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) who was sentenced guilty for distributing bribes to local politicians. Ishimaru’s name was nationally known when he uttered “Shame on you” to the city assembly members during his speech in a session.

 

Not seeking reelection as the mayor of Akitakata, Ishimaru ran for the governor of Tokyo in 2024. For a surprise of everyone, Ishimaru finished at the second position to incumbent Yuriko Koike, overcoming publicly designated contender against Koike, Renho, from an opposition party in the Diet, Constitutional Democratic Party. A fundamental reason of Ishimaru’s surge seemed to be his campaign strategy taking advantage of social networking services such as YouTube.

 

In his press conference, Ishimaru urged the people to broadly participate in politics to exclude obsolete politicians who remain in their seats. His party would assemble candidates for the election of Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, which members’ term will be expired in July. The election will be held in 42 districts for 127 seats. Multiple members will be elected in some districts. The new party will field at least one candidate in every district. Ishimaru hopes to field 55 candidates in total, denying candidacy of himself in the election.

 

Ishimaru revealed that the party had no policy platform. “The only rule is that every winner of the election will retire with two terms, or eight years,” said Ishimaru. The voters will not know what kind of policy his party would offer to them. Voting for personality of a political leader is nothing but a typical populism.

 

The new party of Ishimaru may become a threat for the LDP, the largest group in the assembly, or for supporters of incumbent governor, Tokyoites First. Upholding victory in the election one of the biggest party agenda, Komeito is highly sensitive on the move of Ishimaru.

 

While Ishimaru hopes to cooperate with the Democratic Party for the People (DPP), which is highly leaning on digital campaign strategy, the DPP has not determined its attitude to the election. Japan Innovation Party may approve its candidates to seek support from Ishimaru’s new party. It is possible that Ishimaru’s party puts some impact on the opposition parties against traditional politics in Japan.

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