Koike Becomes 1st Woman to Win Tokyo Governor Race

Tokyo, July 31 (Jiji Press)--Former Japanese Defense Minister Yuriko Koike won the Tokyo gubernatorial election on Sunday, trouncing 20 other candidates including former Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Hiroya Masuda and journalist Shuntaro Torigoe. Voter turnout came to 59.73 pct, up from 46.14 pct in the previous governor's race in 2014. As the first female Tokyo governor, Koike, 64, will try to rebuild the metropolitan government messed up by her predecessors and accelerate preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. Although she is a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Koike ran in the election as an independent because the party's Tokyo chapter decided to back Masuda, 64, also former governor of Iwate Prefecture. Komeito, the LDP's junior coalition partner in national politics, and a small conservative party recommended him, too. After securing her victory, Koike said before supporters at her election office in Toshima Ward that she will consider, ahead of anything else, what she can do for people in Tokyo and plans to cooperate with LDP members of the assembly to achieve her policy goals. The election was held to select a successor to Yoichi Masuzoe, who stepped down over money and other scandals. During the campaign period, Koike took a lead over Masuda and Torigoe, 76, the unified candidate fielded by the Democratic Party, the Japanese Communist Party and two other opposition parties, by emphasizing that she was "free from constraints" as she did not have to give heed to the interests of any political parties and organizations. Some LDP lawmakers threw support behind Koike in defiance of the party's order to back Masuda. While highlighting her confrontational stance against Tokyo's LDP, the largest force in the metropolitan assembly, Koike pledged to make metropolitan government affairs transparent, carry out administrative reform and halve the governor's salary. Koike made those pledges in view of mounting public criticism against Masuzoe's high spending of public money and use of an official car for private purposes. Meanwhile, Masuda stressed his ample experience in administrative work in the campaign fully organized by the LDP-Komeito camp. However, he could not prevent conservative votes from shifting to Koike. Torigoe sought voter support for his stance of opposing the restart of nuclear reactors and constitutional amendments but was unable to catch up with the other two major candidates. The LDP dissident's victory in the Tokyo race weathered the ruling coalition's landslide in the House of Councillors election earlier this month, while Torigoe's failure to capitalize on the divide in the LDP over the gubernatorial election is likely to give momentum within the DP to protest against the party leadership's policy of promoting election cooperation with other opposition parties, pundits said. In the governor's race, a record 21 people filed their candidacy. Voters apparently favored candidates who seemed to have qualifications as the leader of Tokyo and have no money problems, unlike the two preceding governors--Masuzoe and Naoki Inose. Elimination of waiting lists for nursery schools and Tokyo's financial burden of hosting the 2020 Games were also among major campaign issues. END