<figure id="attachment_381721" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-381721" style="width: 1496px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="14c8238a"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/07/1bb373841b1f5b29277183a77884c550.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-381721" class="wp-caption-text">Shinji Ishimaru collected 1.65 million votes.</figcaption></figure>
 Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, 71, won her third term by &#8220;zeroing out&#8221; on Tanabata. Zero-strike&#8221; is an election term in which the winner is assured of winning with 0% of the votes counted at 8:00 p.m.
 In the current gubernatorial election, Governor Koike and former House of Councillors member Renho (56) clashed over their manifestos on June 18, but there were no TV station debate programs just before the official announcement date, and the policy discussions did not deepen.
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
 The election was unexpected, with 56 candidates in the race and billboards hijacked by advertisements for sex stores and pet posters. Nevertheless, the election ended with Koike&#8217;s overwhelming victory with 2.91 million votes. A Tokyo Metropolitan Government official analyzes, &#8220;When an &#8216;act of God&#8217; occurs just before an election, it tends to give the incumbent an overwhelming advantage.
 This time, the election was marred by such unexplained events as poster jacking, which may have worked to the advantage of Governor Koike, who has served two terms and eight years in office. In addition, the free high school tuition and the &#8220;018 Support&#8221; program, which provides 5,000 yen per month (60,000 yen per year) to all children up to the age of 18 with no income limit, were successful in helping households raise children. There was widespread concern that this would be reconsidered if Renho, with her policy of administrative and fiscal reform, were to become the new governor.
<figure id="attachment_381725" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-381725" style="width: 4317px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="a91fe2ea"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/07/4efc80ba89d8af3ddad42306ca2c6849.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-381725" class="wp-caption-text"> Koike&#8217;s &#8220;skill&#8221; in the election campaign was conspicuous.</figcaption></figure>
 018Support policies are those that appear to have a strong &#8220;scattershot&#8221; color to attract votes, but Koike&#8217;s claim is that she wants to make the city a place where child rearing and education do not cost a fortune. However, the Tokyo metropolitan government is not solely responsible for this, as Tokyo&#8217;s total fertility rate fell below 1 for the first time, to 0.99. Tokyo is the only municipality to have a birthrate below 1. Despite the Koike administration&#8217;s efforts to address the declining birthrate, the situation has not been halted.
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
 In her latest pledge, Koike talked about further measures to combat the declining birthrate, such as subsidizing painless childbirth, extending free childcare to the first child, and reducing the rent burden on households raising children. Journalist Tetsuo Suzuki, however, has a cold view.
 In the past, when a candidate was in his or her third term, there was a feeling in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and in the Diet that there would be no fourth term, and that the term would be over anyway,&#8221; he said. The environment in which Koike will be able to pursue his policies will be more difficult than in his second term. Even so, the budget for the birthrate reduction policy is not a large amount compared to the 8.5 trillion yen in the Tokyo metropolitan government&#8217;s general account. Instead of saying, &#8220;Let&#8217;s do it next time,&#8221; the government will be asked to protect the vested interests and the system of descent and descent that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has built up. So, even if Koike is able to realize some of the policies she has proposed in her campaign, she will be tested to see whether she can make the metropolitan government more visible and carry out major administrative and fiscal reforms that touch on vested interests.
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Revealing the New Party Concept"></div>
<figure id="attachment_381722" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-381722" style="width: 4690px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="2b07659c"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/07/415dda67a073d454410aaf46886416db.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-381722" class="wp-caption-text">Ishimaru garnered support mainly from younger voters</figcaption></figure>
 Shinji Ishimaru, 41, former mayor of Aki Takata City, came in second place despite losing the election. Initially expected to receive only 500,000 votes, he accumulated 1.65 million votes, more than three times as many as the original number. Although he did not offer any specific policies, he spoke slowly, using short sentences such as &#8220;Let&#8217;s clean out the political hacks with your help,&#8221; and his speeches were designed to be broadcast on video.
 Shinnosuke Fujikawa, 70, an election planner who managed the Ishimaru campaign, said, &#8220;The future is bright,&#8221; and spoke enthusiastically about the idea of a &#8220;new Ishimaru party.
 If he were to form a new party, there might be a tremendous wind. I&#8217;m sure he&#8217;s thinking about it, because he&#8217;s such a big guy, but the first thing he&#8217;s aiming for is next summer&#8217;s Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly elections. If he can get five or ten members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly to vote for him, he will have a leg to stand on. Ishimaru himself is also inept at doing nothing for the next four years, so he should publicly say, &#8216;I will study national politics to become a good governor,&#8217; and run for the House of Councilors next year. That is the best choice for us, and with the momentum we have right now, we can let him win.&#8221;
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
 The bottom line is that Ishimaru said, &#8220;All options are on the table,&#8221; without giving any specifics about the new party or his own future.
 He was really determined to win, so he is devastated by the defeat. Even on the night of the vote, he spilled out that he wanted to greet his supporters (without being interviewed for the TV station&#8217;s special election program) and leave immediately. If he gets serious and decides to do it again, the &#8216;Ishimaru whirlwind&#8217; will blow again,&#8221; said Fujikawa.
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
 Renho, who was expected to be the &#8220;strongest candidate&#8221; before the election, sank to third place with 1.28 million votes. Her four Upper House elections were in the Tokyo electoral district, and she was the top vote-getter with over 1 million votes in two of those elections. He boasts outstanding name recognition as a former newscaster, and his appearances at campaign stops drew crowds of people in black crowds. A Tokyo assembly member of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) explained the reason for his defeat.
 No matter how many times we told him to &#8216;slow down and use a gentle tone in his speeches&#8217; in order to dispel his scary image, when he gets turned on, he reverts to the style he used to pursue the issue in the Diet. The LDP and Koike, both of whom are facing headwinds due to the back-finance issue, have been trying to make this a &#8220;confrontation between the ruling and opposition parties,&#8221; a tactic that Koike has anticipated and did not make a conventional speech. Only the heads of local governments held the microphone in support. In an election campaign in which Koike&#8217;s camp had overcome the color of the Liberal Democratic Party, he did not step into the same arena and ran away from the race.
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The &quot;run away&quot; point boomeranged..."></div>
<figure id="attachment_381726" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-381726" style="width: 4000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="037c170d"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/07/275a0865a10e7e6bf97cd71356df924a.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-381726" class="wp-caption-text">Renho described Koike&#8217;s campaign as &#8220;running away.&#8221; &#8230;&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
 Renho repeatedly criticized Koike&#8217;s campaign for running away from the debate program in her town hall speeches, saying that it would not deepen the discussion, and on June 30, in a speech in Ginza, she dismissed it this way: &#8220;I asked a senior executive of a private TV station about this.
 I asked an executive at a commercial TV station about it, and he told me that when he offered to debate three times, he was turned down on all three occasions. The reason was official business. But one of those times, when he opened the lid, he was giving a speech on the street himself. I would appreciate it if you would not run away.&#8221;
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
 When we asked Kohei Ojima, 35, secretary general of the Tokyo People&#8217;s First Association, he confided, &#8220;Now that the election is over, I will tell the truth.
 &#8220;I had given the OK to requests to appear on two programs. It was Renho who let the debate program slide without attending, saying, &#8216;It&#8217;s not convenient. One was NTV&#8217;s &#8220;Truth Report Bankisha! . We said yes, but Renho declined, saying it was not convenient for her, and the program was cancelled. Fuji Television&#8217;s &#8220;Mr. Sunday&#8221; started out in a debate format, but switched to individual interviews. TV Asahi&#8217;s &#8220;News Station&#8221; did not even request us in the first place. Why does Renho profess to lie?&#8221;
 When we asked the office of Hitoo Tezuka, secretary general of the Tokyo Metropolitan Federation of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, about the truth, he replied, &#8220;There is absolutely no fact that we refused his request to appear on the program. I don&#8217;t like to reveal the details of the negotiation process, but I had the impression that Mr. Koike had temporarily agreed to appear live remotely from Hachioji, but then canceled it a few hours later, which was a turn-off to the program staff.
 The two camps continued to wrangle over the topic of the debate, with no deepening of the policy debate, and the two sides arguing over whether they had &#8220;run away&#8221; or not.
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
 On the night of the vote, Renho was asked about her future plans. &#8220;I would like to study literature and philosophy,&#8221; she said in a muffled voice in her speech.
 The Tokyo gubernatorial election seemed to be an overwhelming victory for Koike. The next battle is about to begin, with the distrust of the established political parties remaining unabated.

 Daisuke Iwasaki

 Afro

 The Tokyo gubernatorial election ended with a resounding victory for the incumbent, Yuriko Koike. But who was the real winner? Let's take a look back at the top three contenders and how they fared.

Shinji Ishimaru&#8217;s campaign strategist finally reveals his top-secret plan to form a &#8220;New Ishimaru Party&#8221; [Aimed at next summer&#8217;s Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election!

Shinji Ishimaru’s campaign strategist finally reveals his top-secret plan to form a “New Ishimaru Party” [Aimed at next summer’s Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election!

Access Ranking