<figure id="attachment_430140" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-430140" style="width: 1791px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="fe0b03b1"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/06/5c97a51a705b3c07451bf59688a7a8e9-1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-430140" class="wp-caption-text">Shinji Ishimaru has launched a new party, &#8220;Path of Rebirth,&#8221; to challenge the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election. &#8230;&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
<h2> Ishimaru&#8217;s new party promises only &#8220;two terms of eight years on the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly&#8221;.</h2>
 In the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election held on June 22, the Liberal Democratic Party suffered a crushing defeat, and the regional party &#8220;Tomin First no Kai,&#8221; for which Governor Yuriko Koike (72) serves as a special advisor, returned to the top spot with 31 seats.
 Another noteworthy party was the &#8220;Path of Rebirth&#8221; led by Shinji Ishimaru (42), who fielded 42 newcomers. The party was expected to be the eye of a typhoon, following the momentum from last July&#8217;s Tokyo gubernatorial election, but unexpectedly it suffered a defeat at &#8230;&#8230;, winning &#8220;zero&#8221; seats.
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 In response to this, some people on the Internet are saying that the party has become a &#8220;wacko&#8221; and that its &#8220;plating has peeled off. What was the cause of the defeat?
 A national newspaper reporter in charge of politics who covered the race on the spot said, &#8220;The party&#8217;s pledge was to &#8216;make the city a better place.
 The only pledge the party made was that the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly members would serve two terms of eight years. Other than that, the candidates were left to their own initiative, so there was no sense of unity and the campaign was disjointed. While other parties were discussing childcare support and tax cuts, they were unable to come up with policies that would have an impact. In addition, in some areas, such as Setagaya Ward, there was &#8220;competition&#8221; between candidates who fielded more than one candidate.
 He also pointed out that &#8220;there were areas of &#8216;competition&#8217; between the candidates in Setagaya and other wards.
 Mr. Ishimaru also came to the campaign to support the candidates.
 &#8220;My impression is that he went around the country. If we had focused on the districts where the candidates were competing, we might have been able to win one seat. The problem in this area is not so much with Mr. Ishimaru as with his campaign team.
 He said, &#8220;This is a problem not with Mr. Ishimaru but with his campaign team. On June 13, the start of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly elections, about 40 people gathered for Ishimaru&#8217;s first speech. A member of another party said, &#8220;Shinji Ishimaru is completely at his peak.
 Shinji Ishimaru has completely peaked out.
 and gloating. Even so, Ishimaru remained bullish.
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 To those who see him as a dismal failure
 Our goal is to field a candidate for the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. We have done what we had to do as a way to revive the city.
 Ishimaru refuted the notion that he had done what he needed to do to revitalize the city. He responded to NHK&#8217;s characterization of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly elections as a prelude to the Upper House election by saying, &#8220;I remember feeling extremely uncomfortable about it.
 &#8220;I was extremely uncomfortable with NHK&#8217;s positioning of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election as a prelude to the Upper House election.
 I strongly criticize NHK again, saying that such expressions should not be used by a broadcaster that is also NHK.
 NHK was also strongly critical of the article in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. He also bit into an article in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, saying, &#8220;I am not a member of the Nikkei Shimbun.
 &#8220;It&#8217;s shameful that a newspaper like the Nikkei should use such language,&#8221; he complained.
 Another journalist who covered the event complained about the Tokyo metropolitan governor last year.
 Another journalist, who was not present during last year&#8217;s Tokyo gubernatorial election, noted that &#8220;something unusual&#8221; had happened.
 The media&#8217;s enthusiasm has cooled down. TV Asahi, which had been going toe-to-toe with Ishimaru, didn&#8217;t even show up for the press conference. I don&#8217;t think Nippon TV was there either. Even in the Q&amp;A session, there were no in-depth questions. Everyone didn&#8217;t want to be used for Mr. Ishimaru&#8217;s performance.
 Mr. Ishimaru places a lot of emphasis on social networking strategies, and he was concerned about the number of views during the auditions for candidates for the Path of Rebirth. However, 61.5% of respondents did not &#8220;refer to&#8221; information on YouTube or X (formerly Twitter) during this election campaign, far more than the 35.7% who did (Jiji Press survey).
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Mr. Ishimaru appeared on &#8220;Nippon TV NEWS&#8221; updated on June 23, where he said
 &#8220;If we had gone for the seats, we might have gotten them. I think it was possible in terms of numbers. But if we were to do that, we would not be much different from other parties.
 He defended himself by saying that his aim was to make the people of Tokyo realize the true nature of the Tokyo Assembly elections rather than the seats.
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 Furthermore, in the same 23rd edition of &#8220;Rehak.
 How was the road to revitalization?　The representative speaks.&#8221;
 on the same day. Ishimaru answered questions from the channel&#8217;s producer, Hiroki Takahashi, sociologist Ryosuke Nishida, and others, occasionally smiling.
 One staff member who is a candidate for The Way of Rebirth said
 said, &#8220;If you&#8217;re going to appear in influential media, do it before or during the election. There is no point in being told afterwards, &#8216;That was like this. After all, he was not looking at the campaign from the same perspective as the candidates, but from a higher one, as if he were a producer.
 Ishimaru&#8217;s campaign was a PR and research project for him.
<h2> Elections are a PR and research opportunity for Ishimaru</h2>
 On June 24, Aya Toriumi, who was running for the Setagaya Ward seat, announced her withdrawal from &#8220;The Way of Rebirth,&#8221; saying she would continue her political activities. As for the reason.
 She cited &#8220;bashing from some of Mr. Ishimaru&#8217;s fans as a negative factor for my mental health.&#8221;
 He cited this as his reason.
 In July, the Upper House election is scheduled to be announced on July 3 and held on July 20. From the Path of Renewal, newcomer Aya Yoshida is running in the hotly contested Tokyo electoral district. Nine other candidates will run in the proportional elections. Ishimaru is not expected to run at this time.
 Will Ishimaru&#8217;s new party be able to turn things around in the Upper House election?　Political commentator Harumi Arima wonders,
 The &#8220;Party of Rebirth&#8221; has no policies and is not a political party at all. In other words, people who &#8220;like Ishimaru&#8221; got together and ran for office. However, although there were many people who supported Mr. Ishimaru, they did not support the people he promoted. However, this does not mean that Mr. Ishimaru has lost his popularity. With Mr. Ishimaru as a backer, he is able to get a certain amount of votes.
 As for the Upper House election in July, &#8220;Mr. Ishimaru will run for the Upper House again,
 Mr. Ishimaru is not planning to run for the upper house this time either, so it will be a tough race, including in terms of attention. However, he has a certain number of supporters throughout Japan, as volunteers came from all over the country during the Tokyo gubernatorial election. If he wins even one proportional seat in the upcoming Upper House election, this will be another big appeal. However, rather than doing something in the Diet, Mr. Ishimaru is probably aiming for the Tokyo gubernatorial election in three years.
 Yuriko Koike is now 75 years old and may not run. If that happens, Mr. Ishimaru will have a good chance to win. However, if he waits another three years doing nothing, Mr. Ishimaru will indeed be forgotten. Therefore, he will create a new party and although he will not run for office himself, if he creates a new party and puts up a candidate, he will be the talk of the town. Elections get a lot of media coverage and are a great PR opportunity. It is also a good opportunity to do research on how many votes you can get. In that sense, rather than trying to get a candidate elected, I think Mr. Ishimaru is using the election to his advantage.
 He analyzed the situation.
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 Former Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui mentioned Ishimaru on YouTube.
 He is trying to consolidate a certain level of support in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election in preparation for the House of Councillors. I think he wanted to find out how many votes he could get in the assembly election.
 He was very careful to make sure that he would be able to get a certain level of support for his campaign. Will Ishimaru&#8217;s &#8220;strategy&#8221; bring &#8220;wind&#8221; in the Upper House election?

 Takayuki Ogawauchi

 Ishimaru's new party, "The Path of Rebirth", which ran 42 candidates in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly elections but lost all of them...Shinji Ishimaru himself will not be running in the Upper House election in July, but a candidate from his party is scheduled to run in the Upper House election. The turnaround from the Tokyo Assembly election can be seen at ......

Shinji Ishimaru&#8217;s new party, &#8220;Party of Renewal,&#8221; shocked by zero seats in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election&#8230; &#8220;Possibility of a turnaround&#8221; in the July Upper House election.

Shinji Ishimaru’s new party, “Party of Renewal,” shocked by zero seats in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election… “Possibility of a turnaround” in the July Upper House election.

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