<figure id="attachment_431078" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-431078" style="width: 4000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="54996b77"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/07/a1fe1bd57f1a9eac3f1ada00114fc0b0.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-431078" class="wp-caption-text">Shizuri Yamao ran as an independent candidate for the Tokyo electoral district. Why did she run for office despite being told she would be &#8220;crushed to pieces&#8221;? &#8230;&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
<h2> Sympathy vote&#8221; from being removed from the KDP&#8217;s ladder</h2>
 The Upper House election (to be held on July 20) was announced on July 3, and the candidates are raising their voices in the heat of the day.
 The current Diet is blocking the opinions of each and every one of us,&#8221; said one candidate, &#8220;because of the party wall. I want to appeal for this. I can do it because I am an independent!
 Shiori Yamao, 50, ran as an independent candidate for the Tokyo electoral district after the National Democratic Party of Japan withdrew its official recognition of her candidacy. She announced her candidacy on July 1, two days before the Upper House election was announced, to the surprise of many.
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 When she was a member of the House of Representatives, her constituency was Aichi 7. Running for the Tokyo electoral district is literally a race without &#8220;ground, a signboard, or a bag. A person who knows Ms. Yamao tells the story behind her candidacy.
 When he received the official offer of recognition from the National Democratic Party of Japan, he was in full battle mode,&#8221; said a person who knows Yamao. I think it was impossible to put out the fire once it was lit. There were some who predicted that she would not run after the KDP cut her off, but she was not thinking about declining to run. Rather, she was thinking about how she could appeal to the public.
 Yamao&#8217;s unofficial endorsement was rescinded because of her unsuccessful press conference on June 10.&#8217; In response to reports of the 17-year affair
 I will refrain from talking about it,&#8221; he said repeatedly.
 and this caused a public outcry. He also avoided mentioning the death of his wife, with whom he had an affair.
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 After the press conference, the KDP was inundated with criticism from supporters nationwide. Yuichiro Tamaki, the representative of the KDP, saw the situation as serious, and in a sudden turn of events, went to &#8220;slay Yamao.&#8221; Yamao questioned the party&#8217;s decision-making and accused it of poor governance.
 Notwithstanding Yamao&#8217;s handling of the scandal, there is a certain amount of sympathy for the woman who was suddenly removed from the top rung of the ladder. In the end, this has diluted the suspicions of the past,&#8221; said a source in the political world.
 said a person involved in the political world. At the same time, Yamao&#8217;s &#8220;ball-busting run&#8221; has made the race for the Tokyo electoral district uncertain. In addition, some even point to Yamao as a &#8220;key man&#8221; in the race.
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The political parties that will lose out due to Yamao&#39;s candidacy are: ......"></div>
The Tokyo electoral district has six seats up for election, plus one seat for a by-election, making a total of seven seats up for grabs. A total of 32 candidates are running in the Tokyo electoral district, with the LDP, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, and the People&#8217;s Democratic Party of Japan fielding two candidates.
 The LDP, Komei, Rikken, Kyosan, and Kokumin Democrats are running for the five seats out of seven, according to a political insider.
 (said to be a political insider). Of the remaining two seats, one is held by Saya Saya, a member of the Sangen party who made a breakthrough in last month&#8217;s gubernatorial election in Tokyo.
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 And for the last one seat, it is likely to be an unusually tight race involving the Liberal Democratic Party, the Constitutional Democratic Party, the People&#8217;s Democratic Party, and Aya Yoshida, who is running for Shinji Ishimaru&#8217;s &#8220;Road to Rebirth&#8221; seat.
 In this situation, the winner will depend on which party Yamao comes out at the last minute and &#8220;steals&#8221; votes from.
<h2> With Yamao&#8217;s candidacy winning tens of thousands of votes, candidates will be competing with each other.</h2>
 Mr. Yamao is a constitutional reformist who advocates &#8220;middle-of-the-road politics. He has advocated the &#8220;acceptance of female and female-headed emperors&#8221; and the &#8220;right of individual self-defense. In a street speech, Mr. Yamao exclaimed, &#8220;If I say anything about constitutional reform, I am a leftist.
 If you say anything about revising the Constitution, people on the left will leave, and if you say the word &#8220;female emperor,&#8221; people on the right will leave. They say, &#8216;Where do you get the votes? But that is the logic of Nagatacho. I would like to have a dialogue with the people of Kichijoji and make my election a battle to &#8220;visualize&#8221; my middle-of-the-road policies that are not limited to political parties, that are not bound by left or right, but are centered solely on the future of this country.
 In other words, a middle-of-the-road policy that is neither left nor right. A political party&#8217;s election campaign manager said
 A political party official said, &#8220;That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s hard to read. Although Mr. Yamao himself will have a tough time winning the election, he will probably get tens of thousands of votes. That means there will be candidates vying for the same number of votes, and he will hold the key to the last seat in the Tokyo electoral district. The party that is in a hurry is the National Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which is seeking to elect a second candidate. They are wary that they will lose votes due to the cancellation of their official recognition.
 Yamao is also wary of losing votes in the upper house election.
 By leaving his &#8220;mark&#8221; in the Upper House election, Mr. Yamao hopes to reaffirm his value and move on to the next round.
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 According to political commentator Harumi Arima,
 &#8220;This time, he was heavily criticized for running for the KDP and had his unofficial approval rescinded. If he does not run, he will end up with a &#8220;bad reputation&#8221; and lose his prospects for the next election. If he were to win the election, he would have accomplished purification, and even if he failed, he would not be beaten up as much in the next election as he was this time. Even if he fails to win the next election, he will not be bashed as much as he was this time. Moreover, if he wins nearly 100,000 votes, it will be difficult for the media to criticize him. The fact that he was bashed so much, conversely, means that he has that much name recognition.
 Mr. Yamao&#8217;s candidacy is also analyzed in this way.
 According to Yamao&#8217;s campaign, the number of applicants for the campaign staff volunteer positions is increasing day by day. Will she eventually return to the Diet?

 Yoshio Tsunoda/Afro

 Ms. Shiori Yamao is running as an independent candidate in the Tokyo electoral district after being rejected as an official candidate by the Democratic Party of Japan. What is her "motive" for running for office despite being called a "shoo-in"? ......

Shiori Yamao, the &#8220;key person&#8221; of the Tokyo electoral district, is running for the Tokyo election as a &#8220;ballot-busting candidate&#8221;.

Shiori Yamao, the “key person” of the Tokyo electoral district, is running for the Tokyo election as a “ballot-busting candidate”.

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