<figure id="attachment_373461" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-373461" style="width: 781px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="821fa1b8"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/05/bcc13d9fe73f9ab36d4ec15514b277f5.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-373461" class="wp-caption-text">Mayor Shinji Ishimaru of Akitakada City, Hiroshima Prefecture, announces his candidacy for Governor of Tokyo</figcaption></figure>
 I have decided to run for #Governor of Tokyo. I would like to change Tokyo and change Japan. From unipolar concentration to multipolar decentralization. I believe this is the only way for Tokyo and the regions to develop.
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 On May 16, Shinji Ishimaru, mayor of Akitakada City, Hiroshima Prefecture, announced in his X that he intends to run for the Tokyo gubernatorial election, which will be held on July 7 this year.
 In the &#8217;19 House of Councillors election, the previous mayor resigned in connection with a large-scale bribery case involving former House of Representatives member Katsuyuki Kawai. Mr. Ishimaru, then 37, a former banker with zero political experience, was first elected in August 2008, appealing for political reform.
 Mayor Ishimaru is from Aki Takata City. He is currently serving his first term.
 He is currently in his first term. &#8220;Soon after taking office, he made headlines when he exposed a council member who fell asleep at a council meeting by saying things like, &#8216;Shame on you! He is a man who is never short of topics of conversation. Thanks to this, his X followers have surpassed about 380,000 (as of May 18). The official YouTube channel of Aki Takada City has 260,000 subscribers, the highest number in Japan for a local government official.
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 (A wide-show insider) Such a young man has put his name forward for the Tokyo gubernatorial election. Influencer Hiroyuki said
 Mr. Ishimaru, the mayor of Aki Takata, is running for governor of Tokyo. I think we should create a trend of young people becoming chiefs and councilors, so I&#8217;ll support him.
 And Takafumi Horie also quoted Mr. Ishimaru&#8217;s announcement post
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" That enthusiastic love call from the &quot;Tsubasa Party&quot; ......"></div>
Wonderful!
 he said. Horyemon, who is now Hiroyuki&#8217;s &#8220;natural enemy,&#8221; also unusually joined the crowd.
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 On the other hand, Ryosuke Nemoto, secretary-general of the &#8220;Tsubasa Party,&#8221; who was arrested on January 17 on suspicion of violating the Public Offices Election Law for using a loudspeaker to disrupt the speech of Hirotada Otome, who was running as an independent candidate for the Tokyo 15th district election in the House of Representatives, was also arrested on the day before his arrest, and wrote on X
 I heard Mayor Ishimaru is going to run for Governor of Tokyo! I&#8217;m sure he&#8217;ll answer my questions.
 I&#8217;m sure a conversation with him would be a lot of fun, because without that kind of excitement, young people won&#8217;t be interested in politics.
 He was &#8220;giving us a warning&#8221;. He was making a lot of love calls.
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 On the other hand, however, former Daio Paper Chairman Iitaka Igawa, who has recently been at odds with Hiroyuki in some way, said
 &#8220;How can you say that about a man who couldn&#8217;t change a country town with a population of 30,000?
 He said, &#8220;How can you say that about a man who couldn&#8217;t change a rural town with a population of 30,000?
 The incumbent, Yuriko Koike, has yet to announce her candidacy, but if she does, Ishimaru will have a very tough fight on his hands. In the last gubernatorial election, Koike won by an overwhelming 3.6 million votes, and even the second-place finisher, Kenji Utsunomiya, received only about 840,000 votes, so his strength is truly off the charts.
 In a YouTube video broadcast on March 16, Mr. Hiroyuki also expressed his honest feelings, saying, &#8220;I&#8217;m rooting for him, but I don&#8217;t think he will win the election.
 Mr. Ishimaru is supported mainly by young people, including those of the Internet generation. Will he be able to &#8220;break a hole&#8221; in the fortress where the empress has been sitting for a long time?

 Kyodo

 Shinji Ishimaru, the mayor of Aki Takata City, has announced his candidacy for the Tokyo gubernatorial election, and his popularity among young people on the Internet and elsewhere is high, with more than 380,000 followers on his X. ......

Hiroyuki and Holliemon gave their support to Mayor Ishimaru of Akitakata City, who announced his candidacy for the Tokyo Metropolitan Governor&#8217;s election, and the &#8220;ordeal&#8221; awaiting him.

Hiroyuki and Holliemon gave their support to Mayor Ishimaru of Akitakata City, who announced his candidacy for the Tokyo Metropolitan Governor’s election, and the “ordeal” awaiting him.

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