The root cause of Governor Yuriko Koike’s decision to cut off Kinoshita as soon as she returned to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government
Yuriko Koike, Governor of Tokyo, has returned to her official duties after being hospitalized in June for “excessive fatigue” and again in late October for the same condition. Despite the lack of information from her, her health problems were reported one after another, leading to speculation that she was undergoing long-term treatment for a lung disease and that she might resign before the end of the year.
However, on November 21, when he arrived at the office for the first time in about four weeks, he walked lightly, as if to dismiss the “serious illness” theory. He took one look at the waiting reporters and mumbled, “Great.
You’re amazing. Don’t you have anything to say?
His hateful tone was still intact.
That day, he participated in a web conference of the National Governors’ Association, and after delivering a five-minute speech without a hitch, he agreed to be interviewed only for three “representative questions. During the questioning, he did not cough, and his voice was full of “Koike style” as he pronounced the “C” in “PCR test” with a curly tongue.
She denied that she was seriously ill or had resigned, saying, “I am in perfect health,” and “I have returned to my normal duties,” but made no mention of the name of her illness. He denied that he was seriously ill or that he had resigned. A member of the Tokyo Metropolitan People’s First Association (TMF) told us, “The LDP’s Tokyo assembly members are not the only ones who are concerned.
A Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly member from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has been spreading a theory that Koike is seriously ill. Koike’s mother died of cancer, and Koike was also a smoker at one time. Based on such circumstantial evidence, it was vaguely suggested that she might have early stage lung cancer. This circumstantial evidence led to the vague story that she might have early stage lung cancer.
In addition to Governor Koike’s health problems, a question was raised about the future of Tomiko Kinoshita, a member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly who was hit-and-run without a license. When asked, Governor Koike, with a mysterious expression on his face, urged her to resign.
I believe that she is not a person who does not understand the current situation. I am convinced that she will make up her own mind about whether or not to step down.
It is no secret that Kinoshita, who had remained unmoved in the face of strong public criticism and two resignation resolutions by the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, announced her resignation from the assembly on December 22, the day after Governor Koike’s press conference.
In the midst of the Kinoshita fiasco, the government announced that it would pay Mr. Kinoshita a bonus of 2.04 million yen if he remained in office as of December 1. In the midst of the Kinoshita fiasco, images of him and Ms. Koike during the election period were repeatedly used, leading to the damage to Ms. Koike’s image. Once the end-of-term allowance is paid, the news coverage will heat up even more, and the footage from that time will inevitably be used again. That’s why the decision was made to cut her loose as soon as possible. Mr. Koike must have made her accept his resignation by offering her some kind of relief measures,” said another TMG official.
Immediately after returning to official duties, Governor Koike’s prowess became a hot topic even in Nagata-cho, six kilometers away from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office. The party that suffered the most was the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), which was in the midst of a runoff election. A reporter in charge of the opposition party said with a wry smile, “The candidates are too small.
Because the candidates are so small, there is no media hijacking like in the LDP presidential election. The 19th, the day of the announcement, coincided with the day Shohei Otani was chosen as the A-League MVP, so the coverage was small. Just when I thought the Otani fever had died down, the uproar over former Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly member Kinoshita got another small mention. It seems that the fact that Junya Ogawa, a candidate for the national team, is making speeches in Yurakucho almost every day will also go unnoticed by the public (chuckles).
There are politicians who become media hijackers just because they have been on medical leave, and there are politicians who may be the next leaders of Japan, but whose claims are barely covered. The world of politics is so strange and cruel…
Photo: AFLO Reporting and writing: Daisuke Iwasaki